We finally had a good rainstorm last night. The garden looked great this morning, with many flowers blooming and things looking greener.
I love the spiderwort is such a beautiful flower. I love the purple flower contrast with the green.
The polydamas swallowtail caterpillar population has exploded in the garden. I watched the polydamas swallowtail lay eggs on my birthwort, which is now crawling with tons of caterpillars.
The polydamas swallowtail caterpillars feed in groups when they are small, devouring the youngest leaves, as well as flowers before moving onto the older portions of the plant.
The caterpillar will go through four instars, 19 to 24 days, before it’s ready to form its chrysalis. The colors of the caterpillars are a bit different during the first instar, with tan and small tubercles. Once the caterpillar molts into the second instar, they become dark brown with larger tubercles.
They have a black head, prothorax top is orange and short dark stripes. Once the caterpillars enter the third instar, the caterpillar becomes smoother with a glossy appearance.
The caterpillars grow up to 2.1″ in length
My tattered monarch butterfly continues to return day in and day out. Her favorite nectar is from my white zinnia flowers.
She makes me think of resilience. A little beat up, but she continues on.
A huge perk of planting a butterfly garden by your front door is where caterpillars choose to make its chrysalis – right by the front door.
A monarch chrysalis.
The last few days the same female monarch butterfly has been visiting the garden. You ask, how can I be sure? Well, this beauty has seen better days and has very distinct torn wings.
She is truly incredibly to watch flutter about. A few times she flew by extremely close, almost as if she was saying hello.
Every time I see her she is stopping by one of the five potted zinnia plants, going from flower to flower. Once she has enough nectar she will fly to the giant milkweed, sometimes laying eggs, other times just resting. The photo below shows her resting next to a monarch caterpillar who was busy eating.
