Florida Butterfly Gardening

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Aug 18 2007

Today I planted 4 more common or orange milkweed plants and 3 Parsley clumps. Watered them in. I planted 1 more Yarrow plant. I sprayed some soapy veg oil in water mix on the aphids and milkweed bugs. I also blasted the heavenly blue morning glory vine on the underside of the leaves becuase there are crazy ants under them all. Blew them away. I do not see the orange aphids under the leaves but I am thinking theres some kind of aphid on the vine and these ants are after the honeydew they secrete. The vine seems stressed and has yet to bloom. The black swallowtail will be here soon to have her kids eat my parsley again! There were a few very small monarch caterpillers on the milkweed the other day that disapeared. I wonder if the lizards eat them?

Welcome Butterfly Gardeners

This is a page to help people understand the inner workings of a butterfly garden to make a sucessful one. The first thing to learn are what plants are a MUST to have a really sucessful garden. They are: Milkweed, Passionflower Thistle and Parsley (or carrots or Dill). Make sure to grow lots of parsely and milkweed they get eaten rapidly! If the passionflower vine is a good size it should be ok. Whatever you do, do not spray for bugs! You will kill the butterfly larvae. I spray water with 1 tablespoon of dishwashing liquid and 1 of vegetable oil right on unwanted pests like aphids, not drenching the whole plant, just spot spraying.

Passionflower vines

Passionflower vines are the food that Heliconia larvae eat. These are the Zebra Longwing and the Gulf Fritillary. The Zebras are fun to watch floating around a vine. I have had sevral at a time. I used to catch them in an old grapefruit grove and bring them home, where I had this gigantic vine..it actually had a trunk! They loved it. You have to have room for the bigger vines like a purple passionflower. I am growing passiflora suberusa, it has a tiny flower and I am letting one sprawl around on the ground in my garden, and another on a trellis. You can buy seeds at butterflyworld.com.