Sue - You are another gardening great whose gardens and plants I admire. It is an honor to get such a nice compliment for you! Thank you!!!
I do enjoy the garden critters. A garden isn't a garden without the wildlife, IMHO! I've been very blessed that I not only get a really interesting and colorful variety of birds here, but I had a bird bander come for the hummers in 2011(who banded 2 out of the 3 hummers in my yard) and this past Winter I had a different bander come to band the Painted Buntings (as well as the other birds) in my yard. Her assistant counted a total of 12 Painted Buntings (green birds (females or juvies) and the colorful adult male birds). This coming Winter, I have another bander who is going to try and make it all the way down (from north FL) to try to band my over-wintering Ruby-throated hummingbirds. I know I hosted 4 male RTHs this past Winter. They truly are a lot of fun to watch and photograph! In the process, I've sure learned a lot about some of these bird species! (On my YouTube account under "Becky C" you can watch actual videos of the Painted Buntings and Hummingbirds from previous years.)
http://www.youtube.com/channel...
Veronica - LOL! No problem with the name! LOL! Thank you for the very nice compliment! I am glad you and others here did enjoy my story and current garden slideshow!
BTW - I am a nature-lover in other ways, too. I raise caterpillars and release the butterflies. I think that is another reason I have so many butterflies in my yard. I live in a typical neighborhood. Most of the neighbors don't have flowers in their yards. So they don't have much in the way of wildlife either. You look at my yard in passing by and you will see birds flying in and out along with a variety of butterflies. My home stands out like a sore thumb on my street. I wished more homeowners would grow flowering plants in their yard, too.
I never saw Zebra Longwing butterflies in my yard until I planted their host plant (certain Passiflora vines). They are the Florida state butterfly. I am currently raising about 25 of those caterpillars along with some Monarch, Gulf Fritillary, and Black Swallowtail caterpillars. I also have some Gold Rim (Polydamas) caterpillars on some of the Pipevines along my fence, as well as some host plants for the Sulpher (yellow) butterflies and the Giant Swallowtail butterflies. So I garden purposefully for the butterflies and the birds which do in fact come to my yard. My motto .... Plant it and they will come!
Zebra Longwing butterfly. (The cats are white with black spots and black spikey hair!):
This is another very short video (a real video of the Firebush shrub and some Zebra Longwing butterflies). This video is less than 30 seconds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
