Winning Combination Part 3

Today ends my series about placing plants in your garden that will attract wildlife.  The summer is still here and it's hot and humid.  These are perfect conditions for butterflies.  In fact, many of us desert lovers will notice an explosion of Queens and Swallowtails flying around our yards.  And there are more of course that require our attention like the Gulf Fritillary butterfly.  Before I continue onwards, I just wanted to let you know that I'll be back again today.  I went on a weekend hunt which turned up some incredible finds. In fact, there are some exciting things coming up BUT it took away from my reading time on blogger.  I'll be back tomorrow morning(U.S. AZ time) catching up reading and commenting.  Time is ticking here in the desert with my hummingbird finds and I needed to get on the road ASAP to locate more for the Chuparosa challenge. And I've found more:) So onwards with today's write.....

For gardeners, I have written a post that you may find helpful on the Passion vine.  Many of Tucsonan gardeners get irritated by a caterpillar that eats the vine.  Well it's this butterfly that absolutely loves this plant! In fact, while doing the photography, it was laying eggs all over the leaves:)  Why do Tucsonans go stark ravin' mad?  Well this vine does very very well here with water.  It will take scorching sun and grow.  Very few tropical plants can handle our kind of brutal sun here.  It also grows very fast and has the most gorgeous purple, white or red flowers.  The problem?  This butterfly gets busy with the vine before it can take off:) The caterpillar eats the leaf down to a stub and while it doesn't kill the vine, the plant looks pretty shabby:)

But look at this butterfly!!!  The only reason you place a passion vine in your garden is just so you can attract these lovely orange insects. And if you love plants more than the wildlife, you can always pic the larva off the vine:)  But I like to see the butterflies fly around the gardens.  

During our monsoon season, our butterflies are really active.  I volunteer at the Tucson Botanical Gardens in the butterfly pavillion with Elizabeth during the fall.  The temps outside are similiar to what you'll feel inside the greenhouse during the winter months.  And it can be uncomfortable:)

But it's the perfect environment for butterflies.  If you'd like butterflies in your garden, but don't want the leaf damage, there are other options out there but it will attract different butterflies.  Check out this Tucson Garden from 2010.  It's a perfect example on how you can attract lots and lots of Queens into your area.  And when I write "Queens", I mean the butterflies people:) I believe there is video with that post as well(again with only Queen butterflies). 

Finally, last year during my Garden Journal series, I had a post that gives you some great plant choices for your desert garden in Tucson. It's quite extensive.  Click here.  On a side note, I love how everything on this blog is beginning to connect together.  The base/beginning work was tedious, but it's all coming together nicely.   Hope you've enjoyed this mini series of writes or at least the pics:) More tomorrow...