PlainJane wrote: ↑Thu Mar 19, 2020 7:44 pm Lots and lots of monarchs out last few days. I’ve got to get the zinnias started and get some milkweed.

They are everywhere here.

It sounds like spring migration is underway!

Monarchs overwinter in Florida. I didn’t know that.... Love that shrimp plant, the only one they sell here is a muted yellow color, which I don’t care for. I need to start my salvia cocconea’s and milkweed today.

SpookyShoe wrote: ↑Thu Mar 19, 2020 5:16 pm It chose the lip of an ugly black plastic nursery pot. Well, there's no accounting for taste. Anyway, it's making the first step by forming its body into a j shape.

Overnight this happened.......

These do the best for me in morning/dappled sun.

Oh I love the Cat Whisker's. I had to look that one up because I have never seen one before. It is lovely. Which pollinators use this plant? I wouldn't think that hummingbirds do because it is a native of Australia and they usually use native plants which have evolved to feed them.

Count me in as loving that cat's whiskers flowers. Thanks [mention]MissS[/mention] for the info, I'm going to see if I can find one locally. The flower shape reminds me a bit of honeysuckle.
Appreciate all the pretty flower photos posted here, brightens my day.

Bees and butterflies use it. The internet says that hummingbirds use it but I haven't seen any birds on the plant.

It is a cute plant isn't it?

Start your milkweed everybody. Or buy it. On my neighborhood app a distraught woman posted who counted 14 monarch caterpillars on her milkweed. She had cut her milkweed down to the ground over the winter and it was just starting to come back. Therefore her milkweed cannot keep up with her caterpillars. So she was asking for others in the neighborhood if they could take some of her caterpillars. I didn't cut my milkweed back and it's coming back all along the stalks.

We desperately need more milkweed growers.

I'm growing it this year, 6 varieties. I'll be ready when the darlings hit Pittsburgh.

I think that I will start my tropical milkweed this weekend. Thanks for the heads-up Donna. I sure hope that this means that the numbers are on the increase this year.

Red, white, and pink Summer Jewel salvias.
These are nursery plants and they have grown very, very fast. They reseed like crazy.

Lantana....the yellow/orange is in a large pot growing on my front porch and the pink is a very large plant in my neighbor's yard that hangs into my yard. Lucky me.

Lantana is one of my faves and enjoyed by butterflies and hummingbirds, here. In the past I have wintered over a pink one for several years until it got quite large. Now there are two small ones in the garage waiting for warm weather.

Since so many of us are told to stay home, it helps so much when your weather allows you to go outside and work in your garden. The warm weather will be with you before you know it, just hang in there. All the bars, restaurants, nail salons, hair salons, and gyms are closed in Harris County, which is where Houston is. A lot of the restaurants are trying to stay afloat by serving carry-out meals or drive through meals. I guess it's that way in a lot of places. Many non-essential businesses have decided to close also. No customers.

I am binging Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime,

You’ve been busy!
I’d be crazy if I didn’t have the garden to work in.

PlainJane wrote: ↑Sun Mar 22, 2020 6:39 pm You’ve been busy!
I’d be crazy if I didn’t have the garden to work in.

Since we are all trying to do our part with this situation we are going through, I have a lot of time on my hands. I also don't work anymore. So what I've been doing to relieve the boredom is roaming my backyard constantly seeking flowers to deadhead.

If you want loads of those white and/or yellowish butterflies that probably come from cabbage worms, plant lots of horseradish! Not sure if you want to invite cabbage pests, though, but they look nice, anyhow.

It's still too cold outside so I have been visiting your gardens. Please keep posting pics.

I'm a mom!! Early this morning the butterfly emerged from her chrysalis. She's currently drying her wings..... hanging upside down on a parsley plant.

Isn't she beautiful??