Looking forward to those photos, folks! Things are getting warmed up here in Florida. Too fast for my liking, but we have a cold front coming through tomorrow bringing lots of rain and knocking us back a few degrees. It got hot so early last year and then we were still breaking records through November so I feel like we didn't get our usual break of decent weather. I'm trying to hold off the heat as long as I can!
Of course, I can't stop the weather and I actually sunburned my forehead today. I was trying to get a good photo for the thumbnail, and I was also supervising Dad. We're redoing the center spot out front. Remember, Dad's Canary Island Date Palm bit the dust last year and we've been debating what to put there? Well, my Sennas were dying out by the fence (old age, being strangled by aggressive vines). Luckily, they threw down a lot of volunteers so I was like, "What if we planted three Sennas in a loose triangle shape?" Then, I thought I could let some of the "weeds" grow and add some wildflowers. I've already got Spanish Needles, Spiderworts, and Tassel Flower. I thought I'd add some Blanket Flower and other things as they come to mind. Here's the spot I'm talking about. It's in front of my Ford Focus. Oh, and if you can see the bamboo pole, that's marking where a volunteer Corkeystem Passion Vine sprouted up. I put the pole there to keep people (my brother) from mowing it down.
Cute house, right? It was a big scandal when we built it and added that blue trim. Then, the final house was built across from us and they trimmed their house in pink! It looked terrible. They sold five years later and our nice new neighbors painted it a more dignified shade. It's a mix of grays and white now. You can see that the area is full, Florida sun so I have to be really careful what I plant out there. It does have sprinklers that go off twice a week (until they cut us back to once a week, anyway).
It's been warm enough for butterflies, but pretty windy. As Dad said today, "There's a pretty good tailwind". That was in response to a Zebra Longwing going by him at "90 mph". But let's start with yesterday. There's always stuff going on over at the well. And I found a ladybug larva and a looper caterpillar.
This is a Tussock Moth with a green (lynx?) spider. The spider didn't get the caterpillar - I did! Nothing personal, but if you don't keep them in check, Tussock Moths will cover your house, shed, trailer, etc. And while they don't sting, some people do have allergic reactions to their hairs which are also part of their cocoons.
Some other kind of moth caterpillar on the well. FYI, it's right under an oak tree in case you're wondering why all this action happens on a non-plant item.
Between our fence and the road I found some Virginia Pepper Grass (host for Checkered White and Great Southern White) with a volunteer clump of Corkeystem Passion Vine at the base. Someone had been nibbling the passion vine so I looked and found - a Gulf Fritillary caterpillar!
On the other side of the road, this Skipper was enjoying the Spanish Needles.
Before I got sick, I used to take care of both sides of the entrance to our street. I have a vague recollection of planting Blue-Eyed Grass, but it remembered it was there! Trivia time - it's actually a member of the Iris family!
Okay, I have to skip ahead a few photos so you guys can see what I'm talking about. I have two raised beds that Dad made. He re-purposed the trellis from an old hot tub (he used to deliver mail to a hot tub sales place). I only took a picture of the one, but I grow the same things in both. They have Wooly Pipevine on each side, and right now there's Pellitory growing in the middle. I get other weeds in the middle, but I generally don't plant anything in there because the pipevine would smother it. The pipevines in this bed are a year older than the ones in the other bed so they're a lot bigger and broke dormancy a bit earlier.
Remember I said when we got all that rain last week that I knew plants would start popping? Well, they did! The Pipevine really sprouted. And it was found! By a Pipevine Swallowtail! I love my Polydamas, too, but I planted the Wooly Pipevine because it's native and won't kill the Pipevine Swallowtail. Come to think of it, Dad had described seeing a female Pipevine around here. I forgot about that. But I checked, and I found eggs! Remember, Pipevine eggs are reddish, Polydamas are yellowish. They generally lay on the stem, but sometimes you find them on the leaves so you kind of have to look around. But keep your focus on the new growth.
Here's my total Pipevine ST egg haul.
While I was in the midst of gathering the eggs, a shadow passed overhead. And I know it sounds weird, but I've gotten to the point when I can tell it's a butterfly. I only got one terrible picture, but I saw a Tiger Swallowtail!
And since it didn't happen if you didn't get a picture, here's my terrible one. FYI, it was checking out the Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow.
I bought these a couple of months ago, but forgot to take pictures. You see, we had these cool pentas at MOSI and I wondered where they got them. I forgot to ask, but then I was at USF Botanical Gardens, and they had two for sale in the plant shop. I planted them with the other pentas in the "official" butterfly garden. They just bloomed again, which is good because I thought they'd be more stressed about being transplanted. I love how they have the darker center! Will the butterflies care? Will they be as popular as the magic red pentas? We'll just have to wait and find out!
Despite what you may think, I only ever bought one Corkystem Passion Vine. It's just reseeded itself everywhere. No complaints. But this here is the original right up in front of the house. Remember the Gulf Frit laying eggs on it a week or two ago? Well, here's a caterpillar.
I wandered back over to my raised beds because I realized I forgot to check the Pellitory. It's a host plant for the Red Admiral, but doesn't sting despite being in the same family as Nettles (their other host plant). Now, Red Admiral caterpillars make little nests where they silk together a bunch of leaves and that makes them pretty easy to find. I've only ever seen one egg and that was up in Kentucky when a butterfly laid the egg right in front of me. But yesterday...I saw a leaf that was kind of folded in half, and I opened it up just to see what was up. And I found a tiny caterpillar! And if you look close, I found an egg, too! It's that little green bump on the leaf that's resting flat on my middle finger.
Here's another one. Of the three bottom leaves, look at the one in the middle. The egg is on the right side and is a little paler than the leaf. They almost remind me of tiny galls. I ended up finding the one caterpillar and four eggs!
Over to the other Corkystem Passion Vine that's planted in my "official" butterfly garden. Three little Zebra Longwings all in a row! You know I brought them inside.
Before we get to today's pictures, I did bust out the microscope. Here's the Red Admiral caterpillar.
And I tried to take a picture of one of the eggs but they're almost the same color as the leaf. I did notice they tend to lay eggs on the edge of the leaf so that's helpful when searching. I'll have to keep my eye on that patch because I'm sure I missed some. In this pic, the egg is on the top of the tip of that leaf. How do I find these things?
Today was "fly by" day because I saw a Gulf Frit, a Zebra Longwing, a Red Admiral (!), and the only thing I managed to get a photo of was this Cloudless Sulphur. Which is actually pretty weird considering they're usually the ones I can't get photos of because they never stop. Both Dad and our neighbor have Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow plants in bloom and if you recall last year, they were a big attractant. Apparently, they still are. They smell good, too. Didn't help me focus, though. I'm thinking it's time for a new camera...
In mixed news, my large Zebra ST made its chrysalis. The smaller one died of melting disease. It was so weird - he molted, ate a little bit, and then just started leaking fluid and died. Sad times.
