Susan W
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Black swallowtail butterfly

I had a black swallowtail butterfly emerge from its chrysalis yesterday. I was aware some wintered over in the wild, and a few are seen on the first warm pretty days of spring. This one in a zippered mesh cage (small pet carrier), and was on a shelf, small back porch, sheltered from direct sun, wind, rain. I had written off anything happening, and figured sooner or later needed to clean the carrier. Well, lo and behold, there was an adult butterfly flapping wings! I didn't know how long it had been out, but as there was plenty of daylight left and no real wind, son and I brought over to a blooming plant I had. Opened up. It said nadda to flower and fluttered on its way!
Note to self. Next season if any chrysalis still in cage in the fall, keep an eye on them!

HoneyBerry
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A black swallowtail. That sounds amazing. I didn't know there was such a butterfly. I have seen the typical swallowtails, but never a black swallowtail.

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rainbowgardener
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They are beautiful. We had them in our Cincinnati garden - they need carrot family plants (dill, fennel, parsley, etc) for their development:

Image
black swallowtail

The butterfly that was first out in the spring in that garden was the mourning cloak butterfly. It over winters in Ohio. One of the host plants for it is hackberry tree and we had a huge old hackberry. So early spring every year we had some mourning cloaks hatch out. I always thought they were very beautiful:

Image
mourning cloak butterfly

HoneyBerry
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Mourning Cloak and Black Swallowtail are both beautiful. I am trying to attract butterflies to my yard. I'm planting some milkweed this year. I have a butterfly bush. I am selecting butterfly attracting plants. I don't know about those black butterflies yet, if they will come to my region. I will do the reasearch and then plant accordingly. Dill, fennel and parsley are nice plants to have in the garden.

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rainbowgardener
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Butterfly bush is not actually a very good thing to plant for butterflies. It is an invasive exotic from China. It is a good nectar plant, but is not a host plant for any of our butterflies. So butterflies can't reproduce and the caterpillars can't eat it.

Native plants are much better for encouraging butterflies.

Here's a list of your butterflies in Washington state:

https://www.thebutterflysite.com/washing ... lies.shtml

Here's a nice article from your dept of fish and wildlife about attracting butterflies:

https://wdfw.wa.gov/living/butterflies/

HoneyBerry
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Coincidentally, I was just reading about Butterfly Bush being invasive about a minute ago. I haven't had the plant for very long. I bought it at McLendon's fall plant sale at 70% off. I am a reformed 'Sucker-For-Sales' type. The neighbor down the street has a big plant on the street side of the house. A huge moth flew out of it and landed on my windshield. It was huge, a hummingbird moth or something like it. She told me the plant was a Butterfly Bush. So when I saw that plant on sale at McLendons, I bought it. I thought it was a good find at the time, with a name like that, but now I'm not so sure. What should I do now? Kill the plant, I guess. I picked up a California Lilac at the same time. Looks like I made a good choice with that one.
I'm disappointed that McLendon's sold me that plant. I think I will complain.

Susan W
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Just a side note on the butterfly bush. It doesn't seem to be invasive here, or perhaps most of the ones we get at the garden centers are hybrids. Last year when this came up, I asked the fellow at the garden center, and he had never heard of it getting out of control. Keeping it deadheaded helps to both keep it blooming and it won't spread seeds. I admit I just got a 'couldn't resist' dwarf butterfly bush 'Buzz'. I think it will take up residence in a large container, and can be kept somewhat compact.

As for native or not, host plant or not, gets into some interesting never ending stuff. For example, we are encourage to plant more parsley, dill, fennel, rue for the black swallowtails, yet they are introduced from Europe. We like pretty flowers, as do our pollinator friends. Zinnias a biggie in this category, and not native (early ones brought to Europe from S. America early on).

I like native plants, and spend much time researching ones I can add to the inventory for my yard and market. But we seem to make many exceptions for particular flowers we like!

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rainbowgardener
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The caterpillars of hummingbird and sphinx moths are tomato and tobacco hornworms and their relatives. So, although the moths are beautiful, you don't really want them in your garden.

This is an interesting read on the butterfly bush topic:

https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/16875538 ... dlife-draw

HoneyBerry
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Interesting, Susan W & Rainbow and Apple.
Yesterday, I was perturbed about that Butterfly Bush being invasive without telling me. Now I'm more relaxed about it. I think that I still have the plant tag somewhere. The plant is so cute and innocent looking. But perhaps it is actually guilty and is feigning innocence. I am making better choices now because I know to first do the research and not just buy what's on the clearance rack. I like the native plants philosophy, but some of the non-native flowers sure are tempting. I will be careful from here forward. I'm too busy to plant much of anything new this year anyway. It seems like there are more and more people trying to plant for butterflies and bees. It doesn't all depend on me. The bees and butterflies have other people helping them if I don't do it right or do enough. That is a nice thought.

HoneyBerry
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No worries here. It turns out that my Butterfly Bush is a Monrovia and is non-invasive. Monrovia even has a video to show it off. Here it is:

https://www.monrovia.com/gardening-video ... rfly-bush/

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rainbowgardener
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It's better if it is not invasive, but even so, if what you are trying to do is attract butterflies and other beneficial insects, it is much less useful than some of the natives and some of the non-natives that have nectar in tiny florets.

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applestar
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That's right. And you really want larval host plants for the butterflies you are trying to attract, not just nectar plants.

Freshly enclosed butterflies have distinct bright colors and markings that you start to recognize as different from older ones that have been flying around for a while.

HoneyBerry
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I like to shop the clearance sales. But I'm going to try researching first and be very specific about what I buy. I have a few tuber flowers that attract hummingbirds. I don't see butterflies anymore. Just the little white moths with the black dots. I'm concerned about tge butterfly decline. It's such a shame.
Thank you again.

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applestar
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Susan W wrote:I had a black swallowtail butterfly emerge from its chrysalis yesterday. I was aware some wintered over in the wild, and a few are seen on the first warm pretty days of spring. This one in a zippered mesh cage (small pet carrier), ...
@SusanW, your OP prompted me to check our butterfly cage with two overwintering Black Swallowtail chrysalises (chrysali?). They haven't enclosed yet, thank goodness since we may have a hard frost tomorrow morning and it's really not time for them to come out yet here. :D



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