Happy Holidays!

Photo by Jurvetson on Flickr

Hello Friends! I hope you have a Merry Christmas and I wish you all the best in the New Year! Thank you for joining me at Milkweed Gardens and here's to more butterflies in 2011! Cheers!

Where are the butterflies?

Photo by London looks on Flickr

Cold weather has arrived in Central Florida. For our northern friends, that means highs in the upper 60's-low 70's and lows in the 30's -40's. Sadly, I have not seen many butterflies flying about. Butterflies are cold-blooded so they head for warmer temperatures in places such as Mexico, Central and South America in the winter. They can not fly when it is too cold and prefer temperatures between 82°-100° F.  In the butterfly garden, my milkweed was affected by the freezing temperatures and has died back. No worries though - in my previous experience, they seem to always come back in warmer weather.


Despite the lack of butterflies, I so enjoy the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. We are getting ready to have our family and friends over for Christmas Eve dinner. Hope you and your loved ones are enjoying this holiday season!

"Butterfly Gardening for Beginners" on Central Florida Gardening

Remember this posting? Here it is!

Central Florida Gardening - Butterfly Gardening

If the video above doesn't work for some reason, you can watch it here online. It will also be shown locally all this month on "Central Florida Gardening" which airs on Orange TV (Brighthouse Channel 199, Comcast Channel 9, or AT&T U-Verse Channel 99) or Vision TV (Brighthouse Channel 198, Comcast Channel 98, or AT&T U-Verse Channel 99). You can check Orange TV's schedule here and Vision TV's schedule here.

It is a little nerve wracking watching yourself on tv, especially when they only wanted to do one "take." But I hope you learned a little bit more about butterfly gardening and are inspired to plant your own butterfly garden!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tiger Swallowtail on Coneflower by Audreyjm529 on Flickr

For flowers that bloom about our feet,

Father, we thank Thee.

For tender grass so fresh, so sweet,

Father, we thank Thee.

For the song of bird and hum of bee,

For all things fair we hear or see,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

For blue of stream and blue of sky,

Father, we thank Thee.

For pleasant shade of branches high,

Father, we thank Thee.

For fragrant air and cooling breeze,

For beauty of the blooming trees,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

For this new morning with its light,

Father, we thank Thee.

For rest and shelter of the night,

Father, we thank Thee

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hope you and your loved ones have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Good Morning!

I am using my new coffee mug this morning...

Cute, huh?

WInter Park Harvest Festival

I am so excited about the first Winter Park Harvest Festival! It is this Saturday, November 20th at Central Park's West Meadow. It is described as "one part feast, one part farmer's market, and one part gardening seminar" (Orlando Home & Leisure, November 2010) - can it get any better? I will be working with other Orange County Master Gardeners in the Gardening Demonstration tent during the day and attending the Farm to Table dinner in the evening. Hope you'll check out this momentous event!

Local friends: Need a rain barrel or compost bin? Check this out!

Places: The Butterfly Garden at Harry P. Leu Gardens, Orlando, Florida

We have had beautiful weather here in Central Florida so I took my children on a picnic at Leu Gardens. I'm so glad we did - the butterfly garden was brimming with activity. So many butterflies, caterpillars, and flowers! My daughter brought her journal to document her observations "like a real scientist."

Entrance to the Butterfly Garden

Gulf Fritillary caterpillar on its host plant, the Passtionflower

Gulf Fritillary caterpillar - love those spikes!

Gulf Fritillary chrysalis

Gulf Fritillary Butterfly

Chrysalis Box - Butterflies are released from here several times a day after they hatch and their wings dry.

A puddle is a nice element for the butterfly garden. Butterflies will sip water and obtain 
other essential nutrients from it.

Monarch caterpillar on Milkweed

Monarch butterfly

Fall Senna is in full bloom everywhere. It is the host plant for the Cloudless Sulphur and Orange-barred Sulphur.

Mexican Sunflower, a great nectar plant

The exotic looking Calico Flower, host plant of the Polydamus Swallowtail caterpillar

If you are looking to start your own butterfly garden, the butterfly garden at Leu Gardens is a wonderful place to obtain ideas for design and plant materials. And if you have little ones, they will enjoy hunting for caterpillars and watching the butterflies fly about. 

Thank You Little Ladybugs!

One of of the pests that "bug" milkweeds are aphids. These are tiny insects that damage plants by piercing the plant and sucking the plant juices. This causes leaves to curl and flowerbuds to harden. Aphids can transmit harmful plant viruses too.  They are usually about 1/8 inch in size and can be green, yellow, black, brown, pink, blue, or white.

Photo by Eran Finkle, Flickr

So what can you do about these little creatures? Well, I found this beneficial insect on my milkweed yesterday...

Ladybug on Milkweed

Ladybugs eat aphids and I found a trio having a mid morning feast. I find ladybugs so cute and delightful.  I love their vibrant red color and  black polka dots. And of course, they keep those pesky aphids in check for me.

If you do not find ladybugs eating your aphids,  there are a couple of other things you can do. You can blast them off with a stream of water or you can spray them with insecticidal soap. Both of these methods are safe for people and the environment and have worked very well for me.  You can purchase insecticidal soap at your local nursery or make you own.  Mix two tablespoons of dishwashing liquid (without a degreaser ) to a gallon of water. Add this to a spray bottle and apply weekly as needed. 


I'm heading off to my brother's wedding so i'll be out of touch for a short time. 'Til then, happy gardening!

The Butterfly Alphabet Book

I read this charming book with my daughter last night, the Butterfly Alphabet Book. We learned several new facts about butterflies as we went letter by letter through the alphabet. Did you know the Kamehameha is only found in Hawaii and is named after a Hawaiian king?

Did I mention?

I recently taped an episode of Central Florida Gardening with local gardening legend Tom MacCubbin!  I was thrilled to be interviewed by him as I am a big fan of his. I grew up in Orlando watching Tom on TV, reading his articles in The Orlando Sentinel, and cultivating my garden according to his books. Our segment was about Beginning Butterfly Gardening and is scheduled to air this December on Orange TV (Bright House Channels 198 and 199, Comcast Channels 9 and 98, and AT&T U-Verse Channel 99). Exact date and time is not scheduled yet but I will let you know. Hope you will tune in!

On the set of Central Florida Gardening with Tom MacCubbin

Wild about Wildflowers

The Florida Wildflower Foundation's 2010 Symposium was great! I really enjoyed learning about the many native wildflowers that entice butterflies in our area. During his lecture, Dr. Daniels shared some of his favorites like the Sparkleberry, Snow Squarestem, Scorpion-tail, and Narrowleaf Sunflower. He also gave me a large quantity of one of my favorite butterfly brochures, Florida Wildflowers and Butterflies. It describes the butterfly's life cycle, has many pictures of Florida's butterflies and wildflowers, and offers butterfly gardening tips. If you would like one, drop me a line and I'll send one your way!

A new favorite book

The Florida Wildflowers Growers Cooperative was on hand to share advice about growing wildflowers and had a wonderful selection of seeds for sale. I can't wait to grow this Butterfly mix that I purchased!

Reminder!

I'm just back from vacation but wanted to remind you that tomorrow is the Florida Wildflower Foundation's 2010 Symposium and Plant Sale. This is a great opportunity to learn about wildflowers that also serve as butterfly plants and to purchase plants! You will find the agenda here. Hope to see you there!

Some of My Favorite Butterfly Gardening Articles

Not sure if I mentioned this before but I have two Westies!

I've been doing some research for an upcoming Butterfly Gardening presentation and I thought I'd share two of my favorite butterfly articles with you. These are two readings that I often find myself turning to first when doing research. They are Getting Started in Butterfly Gardening and Butterfly Gardening in Florida. Both of these are articles can be found on EDIS, the Electronic Data Information Source of the University of Florida IFAS Extension. Here you will find many helpful articles  by University of Florida affiliates related to horticulture. 

(photo by alicejamieson on Flickr)

Coffee Anyone?

I bet you are thinking "What does coffee have to do with butterflies?" Well, one of the goals for this blog is to share general gardening tips as well as information about butterfly gardening with you. This posting was inspired by a recent visit to my local Starbucks where I came across this cute display:

So there's another reason to stop at Starbucks besides a coffee fix!

Inside the pot was a 5 pound bag of spent coffee grounds free to take home to your garden. Coffee grounds are rich in nitrogen, a nutrient essential for plant growth. You can side dress your plants with coffee grounds, add it to your compost pile, or feed it to your worms if you are vermicomposting. Wow! 


Find your local Starbucks here.

The Caterpillar Guy

My family visits the Winter Park Farmer's Market often and we regularly find ourselves in front of the "Caterpillar Guy"(as my daughter calls him). The "Caterpillar Guy" is Lorenzo Zayas, owner of Nature's Way Butterfly Gardens and he graciously agreed to meet with us on a recent Saturday morning at the market. Lorenzo has been a vendor at the Winter Park Farmer's Market since May, 1993. He has a wonderful display of many different caterpillars and their host plants. On this visit, we saw Spicebush Swallowtails, Polydamas Swallowtails and  Zebra Longwings (Lorenzo's personal favorite).

Nature's Way Butterfly Gardens is located next to the entrance of the old
 train  depot at the Winter Park Farmer's Market.

Lorenzo sharing butterfly knowledge with customers.

Look at the chrysalis! You can purchase a Desk Pet (left of chrysalis box) or Caterpillar Inn (above chrysalis box) and raise your own caterpillar at home. 

Lorenzo gave my daughter a Buckeye butterfly to hold.

Visit the Winter Park Farmer's Market and check out Nature's Way Butterfly Gardens! 

Florida Wildflower Foundation's 2010 Wildflower Symposium and Plant Sale

The Florida Wildflower Foundation is  having their annual symposium on September 25, 2010 in Winter Park, Florida. This is a great opportunity to learn about (and buy!) native butterfly plants. In addition, the author of one of my favorite butterfly  books, Jaret Daniels (see reading list), is giving a presentation entitled, "Pollinators and Wildflowers." Hope to see you there! You can register here.

Tickseed or Coreopsis is Florida's state wildflower and a great nectar plant.

Success!

Remember the Butterfly Container I planted for my presentation at the Maitland Public Library last month? Look what happened...

I found eight Monarch caterpillars crawling around earlier this week.

This is one of my favorite photos.

We found this chrysalis hanging off the side of the pot this morning. 

And this little guy was just hanging out on the Milkweed.

Our Eastern Black Swallowtail Continued

Our Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly "hatched" at about 12:30p yesterday.   He hung for a couple of hours to allow his wings to dry.  Then he spread his wings out to let me snap these pictures of his vibrant colors. I moved his container outside later in the afternoon and he flew away!

What's up next? We found some tiny Monarch caterpillars on our milkweed yesterday!

Our Eastern Black Swallowtail

It looks like our Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly will emerge from his chrysalis today! His chrysalis has become more translucent and you can see his black wings with yellow and blue markings. My daughter has been anxiously awaiting his arrival. He has been in his chrysalis for about two weeks. She is excitedly contemplating a name now. Any suggestions? Stay tuned for more pictures!

My Little Caterpillars

Just returned from some sun and fun at the beach! We visited the Enviornmental Learning Center and snapped these cute pics of the kids as caterpillars!

Baby Caterpillar

Big Sister Caterpillar

Florida-Friendly Butterfly Container Gardening Follow-Up

We had a great turn out for my Butterfly Gardening presentation at the Maitland Public Library last Friday. Thank you to all of you who came to hear my talk and to the library for hosting me! There were a lot of questions and I wanted to follow up on one in particular. Someone asked if passion vine attracts one type of butterfly when planted in the shade and another type when planted in the sun. I recalled that this was true but could not remember at the time exactly which butterflies these are. I consulted my references and it is the Zebra Longwing (photo by justchaos) that prefers passion vine in the shade...

and the Gulf Fritillary that prefers it in the sun.

The Zebra Longwing is the state butterfly of Florida and there are several types of passion vine, such as the Maypop (N), that are native to Florida.

This is the container I planted for the presentation. That's Mexican Milkweed in the back. Second row has (L-R) parsley, Black-Eyed Susans (N), and Pentas. In front are Lantana and Indian Blanket (N).

My daughter brought along our Black Swallowtail caterpillar for everyone to see. His container is a recycled plastic cheese ball container!

Come see me!