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panoply76

Fennel, Dill & Parsley and Heat

Panoply76
10 years ago

Hello,

I am an amateur butterfly gardener. Many butterflies use fennel, dill and parsley as host plants - plants they lay their eggs on and their cats eat.
My problem is that I live in south Louisiana and the summertime heat and humidity kill off my fennel and dill. This year (only my 3rd year of butterfly gardening - or any gardening for that matter), I thought I'd try potting them so I could move them around - keep them out of the sun when it got too hot. All's well now, they are growing fine as it isn't very hot yet. Last year I planted a single Fennel in early Fall, when it just started to cool off, and it did great - got very large (nearly 3 feet) and played host to some beautiful black swallowtail b-fly cats. Sadly, I missed covering it up for a couple of freezes - we had an exceptionally cold (for us) winter, and it died. No sign of it returning. Anyway. I'm hoping I can do this year round, grow these herbs.
I am hoping that one of you know how I can best maximize the ability of my herbs to thrive and still be accessible to b-flies. Will keeping them out of the sun be sufficient? I mean it will still be very hot in the shade and the humidity will be the same. I put in a single 'Bronze Fennel' as a friend told me it was more heat tolerant. Is that right? I've 2 Fennel (3 including the bronze), 3 Dill and one Parsley. ANY and ALL tips are very much welcome.

Thanks,
Panoply

PS: I have no idea if parsley is affected by heat as this is my first time using it. I potted it just the same, though. Will the parsley shrug off the heat like fennel and dill cannot?

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