Butterfly garden

[boneaddict]

Different kind of Monarchs than I usually like to post, but still fun.   Photos are a bit distorted because I grabbed them off Facebook to post instead of uploading directly. 

This has been a banner year for The Monarch butterfly.  I think we have had at least a dozen different ones eclose at our place.   

[boneaddict]

This shot took over 8 hours to get.

[boneaddict]

Here is a fresh male.
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[boneaddict]

This butterfly tends to be in the mountains.  It was pretty cool to have one at our house.  That day this one eclosed.   The other two were old tattered warriors.

[boneaddict]

[boneaddict]

This one was cool because it was feeding on some Tropical milkweed we grew from seed in our greenhouse this spring just for this to happen.

[Timberstalker]

Awesome captures, Bone. Thanks for sharing.

[JWBINX]

Very nice bone, great photos!
Thanks

[Ghost Hunter]

Beautiful.  Can you share where you get your seed.  Had someone in OR shared seed with me but it didn't seem to take.  Looking for anything I can plant for butterflies and hummingbirds in eastern WA.

[Dan-o]

Super cool.
Thanks for sharing.

[boneaddict]

Thank you!


The tropical seed I harvested off of plants I bought at Lowe’s about 3 years ago(Lowe’s hasn’t had them since).  I overwintered them in the house as a house plant.  I collected the seed pods after they dried right as they were popping.   You can get them on eBay usually.   

The swamp milkweed which is hardy (zone 5 at least), I bought several plants last year from The local true value this last spring and again harvested the seed.  You can also find those fairly readily on eBay.
 
The showy milkweed or common milkweed, I harvested pods from plants along side the road.   For such a tough plant, it took me a bit to get some established.   Wait until the pods are dry and start to pop before harvesting any.   Look for cotton fluff on the plants to know when it’s time.   This years bloom is about 50% done, and green pods will start to form.  They grow long taproots and I find growing them from seed was the most success.  Remember these plants are poisionous to livestock. They won’t eat them out in the pasture, but if cut with hay, the animals will ingest them and can kill a cow.

Best nectaring plants I suppose is a butterfly bush (Buddeliea), coneflower (echinacea), phlox, bee balm, lantana, zinnias are good. 

[EmeraldBullet]

Beautiful.  Can you share where you get your seed.  Had someone in OR shared seed with me but it didn't seem to take.  Looking for anything I can plant for butterflies and hummingbirds in eastern WA.

They both like agastache (sp?) which is in the mint family and very easy to grow

[Ghost Hunter]

Sounds like the trick is to start in the greenhouse.  Going to make another effort at getting the milkweed to grow.  Livestock is fenced out so it's all good.  I'll plant it where mowing isn't an issue.  Give them something other than thistles, hounds tongue and others I'm fighting.

[Alchase]

This Swallow Tail was on my Butterfly Bush, just an iPhone photo though.

[Magnum_Willys]

Not sure what this one is but was hovering over my bullseye at 1016 yards.