My really cool Lowe's find..

11 years ago

Stopped in at Lowes yesterday to check out their plants and see if they had anything new. They have those $15 passion vines on a trellis, labeled Lady Margaret. Anyhow, noticed that one of them was setting on the ground instead of on the shelf with the others. It was just covered in Gulf Fritillary caterpillars! I've been trying to attract butterflies, but so far no takers on the passionvines I've planted. One of the employees saw me looking at it and apologized that the plants were infested and offered to discount it for me.

So, I got a decent sized passionvine covered in the caterpillars I was trying to attract anyways and it was only $5 plus tax.

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Comments (9)

thonotorose
11 years ago
Very cool!
RetiredFlorida
11 years ago
Cool! I was in home depot about a month ago and bought a bottle brush with butterflies sitting on it. They left by the time I got to the car but were very tolerate of my carting... Good luck!
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kayjones
11 years ago
That is so neat! FYI - here in Florida, Passiflora LM will run on you, so plant it where you don't mind if it takes over the area or where you can mow over those you don't want. Better yet - dig the extras and give them to others!!!
jenniferinfl
Original Author
11 years ago
Thornotorose, my husband didn't see it that way.. lol.. He kept asking me to explain why it was good that it was infested. Oh well, I was very excited about it.

RetiredFlorida, that is neat, I've never had a butterfly linger that long, they usually take off before I can get a photo. They must have really liked that bottlebrush!

Kayjones, I may have made a mistake in planting this one then, I planted it by my sunroom thinking it might hide part of it from the neighbor. Oh well, I'm pretty sure the caterpillars are going to eat all of this one, but I've taken a couple cuttings so I still have one if this gets eaten to nothing. I'll have to rethink where I plant them. :)
coffeemom
11 years ago
Score! I love LM but have killed 3 of them. I saw them at Lowes the other day. The temptation is strong. The flowers are so pretty. Enjoy!
L_in_FL
11 years ago
Last year the butterflies never seemed to find my passion flower vines. This year, they are covered in caterpillars and are almost completely skeletonized. The butterflies are certainly pretty, though.

I have the whole life cycle going on my vines right now, from eggs to caterpillars of all sizes, to occupied chrysalises, to empty chrysalises, to mating adults. Neat stuff, but I hope the vines recover.
alys_esmond USDA 5b Toronto
11 years ago
Hehe,
I guess "infested" is relative?
L_in_FL
11 years ago
Heh, I don't really mind. The butterflies are pretty:
Hal______
11 years ago
I bought a Passion Vine (at Lowes) a few months ago and it's blossoming like crazy, the bees love it and the Frits are all over it like yours....I don't (didn't) fertilize, so I wonder if any fertilizer might seem distasteful to the little caddy-pillers.