So, I'm still here a year later and still trying to decide on trees. We will plant in the fall. We just finished the main part of our total landscape overhaul and I'm waiting for cooler fall temps to put in trees. Since last year, I have discovered a new form of the Little Leaf Linden that has chartruse foliage- I can't remember the name of it, it's some Japanese name. So I am considering that. I am reconsidering planting a Burr Oak but a smaller one based on suggestions here- still not sure about that. I have a perfect spot for a Tricolor Beech that will be protected from the hot southern sun. I want a smallish, purple leaf something but I hate the purple leaf plums (Thundercloud et al). They always end up looking diseased and haggard around here. I'm thinking about a Crimson Sentry maple which is a slightly smaller, more upright form than the crimson king. When you speak of planting 'more interesting trees', I'd love some suggestions. I'm willing to push hardiness zones etc. with other plants but not so much with trees. Too much invested. My soil is strongly alkaline as I live at the low point of the Salt Lake Valley- Salt Lake being the important part of that. My soil ph is around 8.

Sometimes it seems butterflies prefer to nectar on flowers that are in the sun rather than shade. I have sedum in both sun and shade and while the ones that are in shade do still get a few flowers on them, the butterflies ignore those. The ones planted in sun get lots of visitors, although they're mostly small butterflies. Is your shade under trees where you get some dappled sun shining through or is it along the north side of a building where you get no sun at all? I have seen swallowtails visit my woodland phlox (phlox divaricata) when it blooms in the spring. It's under deciduous trees so it's getting some dappled sun. I can't recall if the trees have fully leafed yet out when it blooms. It might be good to focus on planting host plants where it's shady rather than flowers. I don't think butterflies mind when their host plants are in the shade. If you can grow Spicebush (lindera benzoin) down there, that would be a good shrub to attract Spicebush Swallowtails caterpillars. I have found countless caterpillars on mine. Wafer Ash would host both Tiger Swallowtails and Giant Swallowtails and I believe it's ok to plant in shade. Have you come across the website below? It has thumnail images of butterflies in Texas and lists their host plants. Here is a link that might be useful: Dallasbutterflies.com - host plants

Have you visited any other gardens in your area to see what is attracting the butterflies there? Always a good idea, too. Don't know why you are not getting any. Is this the first year you've either not had many show up, or have you just started your garden this year? I know it took me a good 3-4 years to really get a good population going. Maybe it's just not a good year for butterflies in your location. Like Sandy said, last year was awful for us, altho we had a really nice population of GFs and Monarchs late in the season, starting like mid-August. Butterflies are also capricious - for example, they have never really nectared on pentas in my yard before, especially the cultivars like the Butterfly series. However, this year the Pipevines are going nuts over them. Next year, it'll probably be a different story. Lavendar is also a popular nectar plant as well as lantanas, Cosmic Orange cosmos, zinnias, cleome, and verbena bonariensis. If you get pipevine swallowtails in your area, you might want to consider Aristolochia durior (macrophylla), A. serpentaria, A. tomentosa, and A. clematitis as host plants for them. Most Black Swallowtails like fennel, parsley, dill, and Rue. The Giant Swallowtails will also use Rue as a host plant, so it's a good herb to get for both. Almost everyone in the eastern U.S. will get Black Swallowtails if you plant their food plant. Generally speaking, they don't like Queen Anne's Lace for some reason. Gulf Fritillaries use passion vine, and the natives are Passiflora incarnata (and its cultivars like 'Incense'), Passiflora lutea (likes shady areas), and Passiflora ceurulea (Blue Crown). For nectar plants, it's a good idea to try to have something in bloom during the spring, summer, and fall. Your salix should attract Viceroys and also possibly, Red Spotted Purples. Altho Wild Cherry (prunus serotina) will also attract both. The rotting fruit should definitely attract the sap-dung-fruit butterflies like your Mourning Cloaks, Hackberry Emperors, Question Marks, and Red Admirals. I planted Hops vines this year, but the QMs here prefer the Elm trees so far. I find them on the saplings most of the time, and they're easy to spot because they lay numerous eggs, with a few that are "stacked" on top of the others. Butterflies that use a number of different host plants? Sometimes you have to just take a "wait and see" to know what their favorite host plant is for your region. For example, your tiger swallowtails may prefer Cottonwood over the Sweet Bay. You can also try Ptelea trifoliata (hop tree). It can take a bit more shade than most host plants. I don't have an answer for you on your other questions about the RSPs and Tigers, so maybe someone else can pop in here and answer. Are you planting milkweed for the Monarchs? Sounds like you have a good start. It is good to have host plants and nectar plants available. Egg-laying mommas like to re-energize after a bit of egg laying. I see them nectar and then oviposit, nectar and then oviposit, so having both will assure you of an ongoing population. Welcome to the forum and good luck with your garden. We have a saying, "if you plant it, they will come"....and believe me, one day you'll have more butterflies than you know what to do with. Take if from my experience!! LOL! Susan

Sus, Oh but I've always thought that you had a lot of enthusiasm, so I don't think I have you beat there. You're nice to say that though. ;) I know what you mean about biting off more than you can chew. I do that a lot. Well, most of the time actually. I have projects galore that are sitting around waiting to get done. That's great that you're getting into birding too. I've been into that for probably close to 25 years and really enjoy watching the birds out at the feeders. I have bluebird boxes up for the bluebirds and have gourds on shepherd's hooks for the tree swallows. I also get wrens nesting here and other kinds of birds and lots at the feeders. I love birds and of course also butterflies. I'll have to email you sometime about birding. You mentioned sparrows, and I have some things to say about them and some other things. Maybe none of it would be new to you but I'll at least mention some things then. Isn't that odd how you have PVS one year and none the next two! Actually, that has fascinated me about different kinds of butterflies; I'll see them here and then not again for awhile. Well, I hope that you get PVS in 2010! Oh yes, I agree with your about those being like hyperactive kids. If you take the lid off the container, you'd better keep your eye on it because those critters move fast. I had one crawling on the table one day when I just walked away from the container for a short time thinking the cats would stay put. I might be imagining things, but they almost seem to sense when I take the lid off and want to hightail it out of there. Yeah, I raise a lot of Monarchs if you call hundreds a lot. The most I raised was I think in 2007 when I released about 520. This year was 350. It's a ton of work and I want to try to come up with a better way of doing it. You sure get to see a variety of butterflies there. I wish I would get to raise some more kinds. I only saw a Red Admiral here very briefly several years ago. Wouldn't you know it, I didn't have false nettle then. I actually thought I had it here because I have plants coming up here that resemble it but isn't that (don't know what though). So I planted some last year but didn't see any Red Admirals. I'm hoping that I will eventually though. I saw a Common Buckeye here for maybe a minute in 2008 but didn't get a picture of it (dead battery). I planted Verbena hastata in hopes of getting them to lay eggs but didn't see any at all this year. The one I saw last year was nectaring on the Verbena bonariensis. Unlike you, I've never seen any Tawny Emperors here, but I didn't have any hackberry trees here until this past spring/summer. They're not much more than a foot tall, but a Question Mark managed to find them and I raised a few of those cats. I think I've had American Lady cats here every year since I planted some pussytoes that some very nice person got for me. It's kind of hard to cut those leaves off to bring inside and raise the cats in here, so I think I'm going to make an enclosure with some boards and screen (any other suggestions are welcome) and put it over the plants. It will only cover a small portion of the bed. I was thinking I could move all the cats to that area and then move the enclosure as the food supply dwindles. I really don't know if it's a good idea or not, but every year I worry when I don't see the cats on the plants anymore. I think they mostly hide during the day and come out at night though, so I always hope that nothing gets them, but I'd rather be more sure of that with a covering to protect them from wasps and birds, etc. Of course, with as tight as those plants are, I don't imagine that it would be too easy for me to try to find all of the spiders that are on them to remove them. I don't have any overwintering BSTs like I did the past few years because the three that I raised eclosed in the spring/summer. I still have the GSTs here from last year when they overwintered. I think if they don't eclose in 2010, I'll probably take them out of the containers and give them up for dead. Only one of them eclosed out of about 40. I only have 5 out there (in another building, no heat) overwintering from this year. GSTs are discouraging for me to raise because a lot of them die. I feed them rue, but eventually I'd like to try raising them on wafer ash (I just started a couple from seed). I also have gas plants, but they are very small. I hope that my Wild Indigo Duskywings are okay that I have out there bunking with the GSTs. I fed them Baptisia australis and Lupinus perennis, which they are still on but not moving (as far as I know anyway). I've never raised any kind of cats before that overwinter (I mean that the actual cats and not the chrysalids overwinter), so it's making me kind of nervous wondering how in the world they'll be okay in the spring. I don't understand why they don't freeze and die. If they are alive, I hope that they quell their appetites until after my plants have some growth on them. You're absolutely right...every year brings a surprise and I'm so looking forward to this coming year to see what kinds of butterflies and cats I get!!! My head is always so full of plans! You've helped me and I really appreciate it! Cathy