Marcia,
those are gorgeous pictures,to be framed and hung in your library.
I see a lot of butterflies in my garden too but they are too fast for me to take a picture. Birds are very abundant
also,this time of year,in my garden.
Thank you for sharing!
Felix

Wow Marcia - he is beautiful! You are so blessed to have so many butterflies and I applaud your knowledge of them all.

I used to think that we couldn't have butterflies here on the island since I never saw any - like the squirrels we don't have, I just figured they couldn't get here. But I have noticed several little yellow butterflies cavorting in my garden, especially around the cassia and pentas. They don't seem to land long enough for me to get a picture, but I would like to so I can show you and you can tell me their names!

Thank you for taking time to go out in this heat and get these great shots.

Love ya
Susie

Susie, they sound like sulphurs to me. There are several different ones, but they are mostly all bright yellow, and they move VERY fast. I've never managed to get a picture of one yet.

Islands get their share of butterflies, usually. They are blown over on the winds or the caterpillars are carried over on potted plants, etc. Don't know why you haven't seen many. What island are you on?

Marcia

Marcia, those are some incredible pictures... and what a worthy and perfect specimen he is. I see he showed you his profile too. I have loads of those starburst pentas in my yard too. They are just as preferred by my butterflies as the tall pink and red pentas. I am seeing lots and lots of swallowtails lately too. I saw a tiger a couple of days ago, and there have been more giant swallowtails this year than any other I remember. This has been a great butterfly and bird year in my garden. Nothing too exotic, but lots of both. I just love being out there watching them and seeing all the movement. Thanks for sharing your photo.

Anna

Thanks, Anna. He was very cooperative, but I did take 40 pictures before I got the two I wanted. (He fluttered a lot.)

Those pentas are actually a bit over 3' tall, and not the dwarf ones. I have a couple of dwarf ones (starburst and others) but no butterflies ever go to them. They are all on the tall red ones and these tall pink ones. I'm glad you have good luck with yours, though.

My neighbor has several citrus trees, so I see giant swallowtails all the time. They are so beautiful! But this tiger was just in peak condition. Not even a broken "tail" on him, as they often have.

I had a slow summer with butterflies, but the fall is starting to make up for it.

Marcia

40 pictures! You are dedicated... and patient. Of course, I could watch that guy all day and not tire of him. It was certainly worth it.

Starburst pentas are usually the tweeners. Definitely taller than the dwarfs and have more of the tall penta characteristics- and maybe a similar nectar since they are sooo popular with the butterflies too? My starbursts are about 2 to 3 feet tall, whereas my tall pink ones are 3-4 feet, or even more in some areas! Yours looked like a starburst to me because from the pic it seems like the flowers have a darker center and lighter outside (the starburst effect), but maybe it's the lighting. In any case, it doesn't much matter as long as the butterflies adore them.

Anna

Hi, Anna...I was told the Starbursts were the short ones and had white stars in the center. ?? So maybe my pink ones ARE the same as yours.

My red ones are definitely taller than these pink ones, and if that means the pink ones are Starburst "tweenies," then I'm glad to learn that. I've been calling the dwarfs with the white star centers "Starbursts," and I am happy to learn otherwise. I hate to ask for the wrong thing when I'm plant shopping, even though most of the sales people don't know the difference anyway. In fact, it was a salesperson who told me the little ones were Starbursts! Figures!!

At any rate, these 3' pink ones are so thick and full and such prolific bloomers, I'm very happy to have them. And if I can find even taller ones in pink, I'd grab those, too.

Thanks for the info!

Marcia

Marcia, this is my experience with the pentas. I have starbursts in both shade and full sun. As a matter of fact, the reason I have a lot of starbursts is that they tend to bloom and perform better than my other pentas in the shade. In this area, I have the starburst in full sun and they tend to be much more compact. In the front they get full sun all day and stay about 18-24 inches. The leaves are a bit bleached out and the center of the flowers is quite dark with more contrast to the lighter pink of the outside edges of the flowers. Here you can see that as the starbursts get more shade, toward the back, they become taller and taller:

In my filtered shade areas they are actually about 3-4 feet presently and the centers of the flowers are not as dark:

These are my tall pink pentas. In some areas they get about 5 feet tall, even in full sun as they are here. Bruce is 31 inches tall, and although she is lying down, you can probably tell the scale. The flowers are uniformly rose pink.

This is a different variety of tall penta. The color is difficult to describe. Sometimes they look like watermelon, sometimes between pink and red. They get 4-5 feet tall also:

My red pentas suffered greatly recently after 3 inches of rain fell within a day. Their feet got wet and I'm not sure they'll recover, so I won't show those!

As you can see, I'm a little nutty about the tall and starburst pentas. I have not shown you most of the places I have tucked them in my yard!

Anna

Wow, thanks for that good info, Anna. When I bought my tall red pentas, the guy told me the pink ones were the same kind, and the little pink ones (about 1' tall) with white centers were Starburst. I'm quite sure you have a better handle on the differences than he did. (I caught him in lots of other mistakes, so I don't know why I would have thought he knew any more about pentas.)

Your Starburst pinks look exactly like mine, and I'm sure they are the same. And your other taller pinks are SPLENDID. I'd love to find some of those up here. Unfortunately, most of the stores carry nothing but the dwarfs any more. It's even hard to find the tall red ones.

Have you had any luck with cuttings? I'm thinking I'd like to propagate both my tall red ones and my pink Starburst, since both are so hard to find here. And if I ever come across any like your taller pink and watermelon ones, I'm grabbing them, too. Pentas are amazingly tough, don't even think about wilting in summer heat, and draw more butterflies than just about anything in the yard.

I'm with you...you can't have too many!

Thanks again for clarifying what I have. I always learn so much from everyone here. It's a shame we don't have an Official Garden Web Nursery where folks could get the REAL scoop on what they are buying! But nevermind...I learn it all HERE on the Florida Forum!

Marcia

BTW, I meant to say GREAT PICTURES!! Your yard just always looks so gorgeous! Thanks for sharing!!

Marcia

I love butterflies and pentas too, but... I particularly liked the pic of the pup.

Marcia, I have trouble finding the starburst and tall pink pentas as well. Last year I was lucky. I was able to get my local nursery (Farm and Garden) to order 12 of the tall pink pentas for me. Last year I also found the watermelon/pink ones at Crowley's and bought all she had (5 I think). This year I found a few starburst at Troy's, another local nursery. Usually whenever I find them, I buy them because the pentas last only 2-3 years in my yard and I just can't be without them. The red ones are the easiest to find, I think because they have the reputation of attracting the most butterflies. Truly, I have seen no difference. It's any of the tall ones that bring the butterflies, IMO. This past week I saw a few of the tall pink ones at Crowley's. I don't know whether they ship, but they were really healthy looking plants. I'm surprised I was able to pass them up!

This year I have been so so busy, I have not tried to propagate any pentas yet. Last year I propagated about 10-12, but tried probably 3 times that amount. I am such a lazy waterer that they usually dry out on me. I am awful about watering. You might have better luck. If you'd like to try some cuttings, I am happy to send you some, although I don't know how they'd do in the mail.

Susannah, Bruce is my very good girl. She is a great family dog, extremely smart and loving. She is a standard poodle, but I cut her hair all the same length and she likes it that way and so do we. She is not a fru-fru girl, after all, her name is Bruce!

She is black like her mother, but has a red beard like her dad.

Anna

Bruce is adorable, and good on you for the "puppy" cut, one length. I would like poodles so much better if so many of them didn't look so...so...POUFY!! (I know there's a reason for that cut that dates way back, but it doesn't really flatter them, if you ask me, not that anyone did.) And standards are lovely dogs.

Thanks for the additional info on the pentas. I don't know how long these will last for me, but I intend to keep some around at all times. Thanks for the offer of cuttings, but I think you are right about mailing them. It's a lot of trouble, and then if they are dried out, they won't likely do much. I'll just keep my eyes open, and if I don't find any, I'll see about ordering online or something. In the meantime, I'll just admire the pictures of yours!

Marcia