You may have saved hundreds by releasing it to go forth and multiply!

not sure if it was the right thing to do or not.. but we had a nasty downpour a few weeks ago.. and I have a lawn decoration that fell over with the soft ground .. fixed it and this flopping BF caught my eye.. just being pounded by the rain in the lawn.. I offered a ride on my finger and it took it.. brought it in my yard and gave some protection under my awning.. stayed with me all night, morning.. and the next afternoon it was gone.. hope the poor baby made it

oh the agastache was too bouncy for it I guess.. it moved over to one of my coleus for the night

I just get home from a emergency Fennel and Parsley run down to the butterfly farm and I also came home with pupae of the following butterflies
2 Julia
2Red Admiral
2 Question Mark
2 Pipevine Swallowtail
2 Gulf Fritillary
2Great Southern White
2 Common Buckeye
1 Zebra Longwing
2 Monarch
Will take close ups of them later and macro pictures of them when they come out.

Wow! that is really neat, how much do those sell for?

here is the web site, They can not send all of these out of state but you might be able to find a Butterfly farm closer to you.
http://www.butterfliesetc.com/...
As I went to pick them up I did get a discount.

Thank you, we do have a butterfly farm in our area, but I never thought to buy some, don't even know if he sells to individuals, but that is a neat idea.
Are you going to show them somewhere? or are you just stocking your garden?

I will release them after I take pictures, a couple will not survive if we have a hard winter.We are at the top of the Zebra longwings range and we are to far north for the Julia. But next year I am hoping to bring back the Zebra Longwings to our area.
Some of the others are already in our area or where before the freezes and drought.. Next year I will be buying the ones that I have host plants for.
Just get a native paw-paw plant, so that along with the Hackberry and the Wild Lime should be large enough next year to feed some cats.

Well, that is one way to get them jump started!!! Good luck to you in your endeavor.

Thanks, I have the Black Swallowtails going. They had a feeding frenzy last night ate up the fennel. I have seen one Giant Swallowtail, a couple of Gold rim swallowtails and a couple of others so if I get the food growing they will return.

how cool.. can't wait to see how they turn out

Does anyone have a good list of host plants for butterflies?

It depends on your area, I just get a great book for Florida.

What state do you live in and I will see if I can find the right book for you.

Susan I found these 2 places that might help, the second might be the best as it can slim down your list to not only your state but your county. Click on the name of the butterfly or moth and it will go to a screen that has lots of info on it.
http://www.thegardenhelper.com...
http://www.butterfliesandmoths...

Zinnias are well loved by butterflies. Wren, Susan is a Missouri girl. I was born in Missouri too. Just relocated slightly south...

I am planting mostly the host plants this year.

The second site will work for anywhere.

Sandy I really like those sites. Guess I didn't remember researching butterflies.
Look what I found on my own website http://butterflywebsite.com/bu... and http://mdc.mo.gov/sites/defaul... on the Butterfly Garden tab...I need a loosing my mind smilie.

Very good.