Okay, so yesterday I dragged myself out and even woke up Dad to make him help.
We were working on my butterfly garden in the front half circle and we did some work in front of the house. We also went and got mulch. FYI, I prefer to use the medium size pine bark chips. Just say no to Cypress mulch!
So first out were the Duskywings. They seem to be over the fact that I ripped out a bunch of Spanish Needles. They have Porterweed to eat.
There were so many Zebra Longwings out! This one had a big glob of pollen on its proboscis. Nom, nom, nom.
Mostly, it's Gulf Frit city up in here. So many Gulf Frits. Not that I'm complaining. It's just amazing (even to me) how many I have this year.
As a member of the Florida Wildflower Foundation - got the specalty license plate and will be attending the symposium - I found out something interesting. You can get your yard certified as a "Widlflowers, Naturally" habitat and get a cool sign to put in your yard. When we planted the front section between our road and the driveway, I figured we better go native or everything else would die. If you remember, this is where Dad's Canary Island Date Palm used to be. This is also where I planted the things I showed Mom last week at the beach. Now, one of my flowers, Liatris spicata, recently started blooming. I had seen a bee on it, but yesterday the butterflies were on it! And the bees!
Spicebush was first to land.
Then, one of the Gulf Frits started checking them out! I was taking lots of photos and Dad was like, "What's special about that butterfly?" And I told him it was on the Liatris! Unfortunately, I had to get a little aggressive when weeding and broke some of the buds.
Still plenty of Gulf Frit caterpillars. I had to relocate another one. Mom relocated three the other day. They love the Corkystem, but I don't have as much of it so they have to go to the 'Lavender Lady'.
I saw a female Spicebush over on the Pentas. My Spicebush eggs were parasatized.
The letter carrier came by so I walked over to get the mail when I saw some Gulf Frit flirting in the driveway. I actually think it was harassment because she was not interested. Anyway, I made Dad get the mail (he is a retired letter carrier) while I took pictures. After I took the pictures, I shooed the male away so the female could make her getaway. Because we females have to take care of each other!
I believe this is a female Spicebush, but as you can see, she's missing a few parts. If you look to the right of her in the first picture, you'll see a Gulf Frit in mid-air. The Frits and the Zebras were on the Jatropha all day. Also, I feel like every time I post a Jatropha picture, I'm just encouraging David to get one. And then he'll have another plant to drag into his basement for the winter.
But I can't deny they're a real butterfly attractor.
When I was relocating the Gulf Frit, I took a closer look at the Corkystem Passion Vine to see if there were any more. Instead, I found three Zebra Longwing caterpillars!
In the first picture, you can see where its old head capsule got stuck in its spines. Don't worry, I knocked it off. I'm nice like that.
And there were some Zebra Longwing eggs!
I guess I should have taken "before" pictures, but here's what we worked on yesterday. This is to the left of the front door. We didn't get to the right side so I'm not showing you that.
The Jatropha is on the right, though. But on the left we have my Red Cedar, Plumbago, Hibiscus 'Fort Myers Yellow', and Porterweed. I think that's actually two Porterweeds. And behind the Red Cedar we planted some Pentas, and I also have my Bastard Indigo back there. If you remember, I planted a Senna ligustrina in front of the glass blocks (that's the master bathroom) but Dad accidentally hit it yesterday and took it out, despite me pointing it out to him. I still have seedlings (that are like three feet tall now) on the corner that I was keeping in case some of the transplanted ones didn't make it. So I told him I can always transplant one of those, but I'm waiting until at least October when the heat dies down a bit. I might change my mind by then, though and plant something completely different! Gardening - an ever-changing hobby! Honestly, Dad was more upset with himself than I was. But I'll find a way to leverage it into more work out of him!
As for the space between the driveway and the road...the tallest thing on the left is one of three Senna ligustrina. That one transplanted the best, but the other two are coming along. The dragonfly trellis has Corkystem Passion Vine at the base of it. There was a Gulf Frit checking it out that I had to shoo away. The reddish flowers are Blanket Flower and the mounds of green are Dune Sunflower. There's also some Spiderwort in there, but this is not the time of year for it to shine. You can see a couple of the Liatris - only a few have bloomed so far. Oh, and smack in the middle is a Wild Lime. So that's three host plants and a few nectar plants. To get it certified for the FL Wildflower Foundation, the area must be at least 50 square feet and 75% native wildflowers. So I'm pretty sure I'm meeting those qualifications.
I'll remember it now (I hope). 
Melanie.
We got a lot done, and I have lots of pictures, but I need to go eat something because I just woke up. I found some new caterpillar friends - new to me, even! So look forward to that!
