Tag Archives: zinnia flower

A must have

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One of the things I enjoy about gardening is the trial-and-error aspect of it all. Plant something here, plant something there. Plant this variety, or that. Some thrive, some shrivel up and die. Some give off lots of seeds, while others spread voluntarily. A garden becomes a work of art, as you continue to fill in the spaces and make it a butterfly wonderland.

Recently the plant of success has been the zinnia. This plant is incredibly easy to grow from seed and does not take too long to mature. It’s one that keeps giving, as well. The best part is it is doing well without our daily Florida rain, in the heat, nonetheless. I have found that they do best in the ground, though, and not so well in pots.

By far the best addition to the garden, the ever stunning, visited often, zinnia.

In love

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The gulf fritillary, such a stunning butterfly! At any given time we have at least six fluttering about the garden.

These two recently emerged in our butterfly house the last few days. The first photo rested on our butterfly bench for a while. The contrast of the gulf fritillary and the bench, to me, is stunning.

I have found that the zinnia flower is another favorite of the gulf fritillary. They always feed off the red penta and blue porterweed, so I was excited to see I found another nectar plant they enjoy. I just planted more than a dozen zinnia seeds with the seeds already sprouting in the garden.

A male emerged

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We have taken a break from raising monarch caterpillars for the last few months until my husband spotted a caterpillar crawling up our lanai screen looking for a place to make its chrysalis. I put the caterpillar in our butterfly house and it instantly found a branch to make its J and create its green chrysalis. Yesterday a beautiful male monarch successfully emerged and was released in our garden.

He chose a zinnia to rest on and then a red sage before taking a longer flight out of the garden.

This beauty marks No. 429 that we have raised and released.

The monarch butterfly’s scientific name is Danaus Plexippus, which means “sleepy transformation” in Greek. The male has two black spots in the center of its lower wings and are larger in size than the female. According to the National Wildlife Federation, the spots are scent glands, which help the males attract females.

Our second

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Each butterfly is so incredibly unique and beautiful in their own way.

As with every species, I am in awe of the coloring of the white peacock butterfly. The journey that began more than three years ago has been incredibly gratifying for the simple fact that we continue to invite more and more species into our garden.

Our second white peacock butterfly emerged this morning and was released early this afternoon. It was not eager to leave my hand, so I gently moved it to a zinnia flower where it remained for a little while longer before it flew to a red penta flower not too far away.

I am excited to share while I was working in the garden last night, I spotted a white peacock butterfly in the garden. It may have been the one I released earlier in the day. It would be wonderful if these beauties hung out and began their lifecycle in the garden. We have plenty of food for the caterpillars.

Mallow-scrub hairstreak

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The incredibly adorable mallow-scrub hairstreak butterfly sitting on a homegrown zinnia flower. Their wingspan is incredibly small at 7/8 to 1 1/4 inches.

I love seeing these butterflies flutter, or should I say zoom, around the garden. Usually I see this butterfly on my scorpion tail sipping the nectar.