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.