Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterflies

If you've been following the Virginia Shire blog,

you know that we have been "farming" Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterflies

here for the last week or so.

A photo of an Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly 

that I took at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens last summer:

avirginiashire.blogspot.com

Yesterday the plump green caterpillars vacated the parsley stems

and disappeared as quickly as they arrived.

We never see them come, and we never see them go.

But they went--at least some of them did.

Late this morning I cleaned up this mess the caterpillars left behind:

avirginiashire.blogspot.com

It was really hot, so I was working fast so I could get back indoors,

but I moved on to the planter of gerbera daisies on the deck railing above the parsley pot. 

I raised one of the large daisy leaves to snip the stem of a spent blossom

and that's when I saw them: 

 three curled swallowtail caterpillars resting in the shade of the big leaves.

A big meal, a warm summer day, a quiet place to nap in the shade.

I'm pretty sure we can all relate.

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Butterflies

The Early Bird Gets the Worm

When caterpillars destined to become butterflies

stuff themselves with parsley leaves, anything can happen.

This morning the parsley was still covered with bright green caterpillars:

avirginiashire.blogspot.com

We were standing at the kitchen window,

looking out at the caterpillars, some of which

had begun to move onto the violets, impatiens, and ivy on the same table.

We surmised they were moving away 

because there were only a few nibbles of parsley left.

Suddenly a robin flew in, 

plucked one of the caterpillars from a parsley stem,

and flew off in an instant.

We were surprised, but probably not as surprised as that fat green caterpillar was

when he found himself airborne.

Becoming a butterfly must be harder than it looks.

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Lantana Topiary

One flowering perennial that will never let you down is the lantana. 

Lantana come in a variety of colors: lavender, yellow, orange, 

and an appealing orange-pink-yellow tri-color.

My favorite is the tri-color.

They love heat and dry conditions and will grow easily into a small shrub.

Despite all their good qualities, they've never been my first choice for planting.

Posted by Leslie Landers, Image: aridgardening.com

 But this week I was in the garden center and saw a lantana

that had had been trained into a small topiary tree.

Pretty and unusual. 

I may have to give it a try next summer.

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