Warms my heart

Posted on September 21, 2024 by SweetButterfly Bliss

A special bond sure unfolds when you have a dog. Lily, our now 5 month old golden retriever, finds a way to snag a little more of my heart every day. This gentle big bear, a nickname we have given her, has become my butterfly sidekick.

I am a huge dog person, and well a butterfly enthusiast, as well.

The last few days we have released butterflies from our butterfly house, the first, an orange barred sulphur, and the second a male monarch butterfly. As soon as I say, we have butterflies, Lily jumps up on the ledge of our butterfly house to see and then walks outside and sits down so she can further inspect.

I fell in love with the “pure” sweetness of these captured moments.

The sulphur, both cloudless and orange barred, butterflies, lately, are my most visited butterfly species. They are fast bursts of sunshine fluttering about the garden! They love laying eggs on both of my bahama cassia and candlestick cassia trees.

Sulphur galore

Posted on September 1, 2024 by SweetButterfly Bliss

We have had a record number of sulphur butterflies emerge in our butterfly house, 25 in 10 days. We’ve had both orange barred and cloudless sulphur butterflies emerge.

The best part . . . the number of sulphurs fluttering about the garden every day continuing the life cycle. The photo below shows many white eggs that have been deposited on the edge of the candlestick cassia plant.

Sulphur galore

Posted on August 17, 2024 by SweetButterfly Bliss

The temperatures have been a little cooler, by that I meam a few degrees – still 90s/80s, and a nice, a bit cooler wind, so I’ve gravitated back into the garden after apparently ignoring it for way too long. All of the rain has made everything double, if not triple in size, including the weeds.

So, I’ve decided to tackle the farthest point of the garden and move backward. This area includes a section near my candlestick cassia. The tree is growing in every direction and is crawling with sulphur caterpillars, both orange barred and cloudless sulphur caterpillars.

When cutting back my scorpion tail, I found quite a few chrysalis, which have been moved to my butterfly house.

Egg bombed

Posted on May 4, 2023 by SweetButterfly Bliss

I am slowly extending my butterfly garden to the front of my house, so I can see the butterflies as I am working in my office. It’s been a great project. One because I am beautifying my space more, and two because I am seeing tons of butterflies.

Today while typing yellow caught my eye dragging it to look out the window. So, of course, I grabbed my camera and stepped outside to see if my vision was correct. Yes! A sulphur, a beautiful sulphur is visiting my Bahama cassia tree depositing lots of eggs. I believe by its marking, it may be an orange-barred sulphur. It is hard for me to tell the difference between the cloudless sulphur, and the orange-barred sulphur butterfly. As the caterpillars grow it will be easier for me to decipher which one.

The eggs are white in the middle of the branch.

374 butterflies

Posted on January 2, 2023 by SweetButterfly Bliss

When we first began our butterfly house, I decided to keep count of how many we raised and released, as well as the species. I am so glad I did. Last year, 2022, was an incredible year in our butterfly house with seven species raised, totaling 374 butterflies.

Unfortunately since Hurricane Ian swept through our area in late September, I have not seen all of these species return. Their host plants have remained and are thriving, so hopefully as the seasons change, they will return and allow us to watch their process from egg to butterfly happen once again.

With that said, we also have frequent visitors from other species that I have not raised within the butterfly house, which include the zebra longwing butterfly and the white peacock butterfly. There is also a host of skippers that frequent the gardens for its nectar, but I have never found any eggs, or caterpillars.

I hope our garden, and butterfly house, thrives in 2023 as well.

I have listed the butterflies, as well as the number that we have released, with their photos below. To say I have compiled quite a library of butterfly photos is an understatement.

Julia butterflies (8);