"Coffee. Garden. Coffee. Does a good morning need anything else?"
~Betsy Cañas Garmon

All is quiet here in the Container Butterfly Garden. Most butterfly action is muted, save for a couple of stubborn Monarch butterflies that refuse to migrate towards the coast. That can be solved rather easily, but what that is, I'll share in the next post.

Ahhhhhh... coffee and a winter garden: two lovers entwined in an inextricable dance of warmth, cold, sight, sound, taste, aroma, and scent. As the quote above begs the question, does a good morning need anything else on these cold, late season early mornings? Me thinks not!

The Cassia bicapsularis, commonly known as Winter Cassia or Christmas Senna, planted to attract and support the various sulfur butterfly species that visit the Container Butterfly Garden, has been going bonkers in growth and blooms. Quite stunning really. I love this plant, as its requirements are few. It gives a lot more than what it receives: kind of like a faithful dog.

I did have to butcher it a bit in September, as it was growing like crazy pushing up against the house and a bedroom window, shooting out longer branches to accommodate the forthcoming rain of beautiful yellow blooms. When butchering... errr... I mean shaping it, I noticed dozens of sulfur chrysalides hanging amongst its branches. I was very careful to not accidentally dump any in the green waste bin.

Upon closer inspection, I saw that virtually every chrysalid turned brown, not the bright green or tannish color healthy pupae of this family sport. Peering even closer, there appeared a small, round hole on one side of every chrysalid that signaled the once-present attack of some sort of predator fly or wasp. They inject an egg into the host caterpillar, where it hatches and grows along with its host. After the cat forms a chrysalis, the fly or wasp larvae eat the developing butterfly inside, eventually killing it. Upon pupating, an adult fly or wasp emerges, boring a hole in the side of the now dead chrysalis, ready to do its own thing.

-Andrew Kliss

Cassia bicapsularis, Winter Cassia

As a gardener for the City of Laguna Beach, I planted several C. bicapsularis in one of the parks I took care of, plus another cassia species, Cassia leptophylla. What a sublime pleasure it was to see Cloudless Sulfurs flitting about the C. bicapsularis. The C. leptophylla didn't get many visitors, but they were so young and somewhat anemic. As they mature, the leptophyllas should begin to attract sulfurs too.

-Google

Cassia leptohylla, Gold Medallion Tree

Both cassia species are topnotch candidates for attracting various sulfur butterfly species. The city of San Diego has lined many of its streets with C. leptophylla, and planted C. leptophylla and C. bicapsularis within its parks. It would be nice to see other municipalities follow suit, he said, as he cleared his throat rather conspicuously. Oh, yes; and on that note:

Bringing Monarch Conservation to Parks Nationwide is an article regarding an initiative to set up parks throughout the nation to help out pollinators such as butterflies. Below is a snippet of that article: 

"Public parks are ideal locations for creation of monarch habitats.  In most cities and suburban communities, park agencies are often the largest owner of public lands, and most of these lands are permanently protected for conservation.  NRPA brings the ability to coordinate the establishment of a network of interconnected parks and other public lands as high quality habitats that are dedicated to monarch and other pollinators.  In addition to habitat restoration, parks provide great opportunities for public education and support for citizen science as well as professional research."

C. biscapsularis is somewhat common in the SoCal nursery trade, C. leptophylla, not so much. If interested in either of these and they aren't readily available at your favorite garden center, most likely, they will be able to order them for you.

 

There are a number of cassia species available at nurseries, coming in the shape of medium-sized shrubs to trees. All are easily identifiable as members of the cassia, or senna family. Some are extremely drought tolerant, whereas others like their water. Shrub species can take lots of pruning and abuse. One must be careful to not clip or prune C. bicapsularis too late in the season, or else you'll be sacrificing the beautiful winter blooms it's known for.

One species of cassia I know of that is considered a noxious weed in SoCal, and therefor shouldn't be planted unless one is willing to take the extra precautionary time to deadhead spent blooms before they set seed, is Cassia didymobotria, commonly known here as Popcorn Senna (cassia and senna are interchangeable names). It's especially important for those living next to or near greenbelt and open areas to not plant C. didymobotria.

-Google

Cassia didymobotria, Popcorn Senna

For more info on cassias, sulfurs, and parasitic insects, please refer to the Labels and Categories list to the right of this post.

"Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination."
~Mrs. C.W. Earle

"Victory for Monarchs in California!" the heading reads.

YAY!

Locally, it would be nice to see the Monarch overwintering site that used to occupy Smithcliffs in Laguna Beach restored, or at least mitigate its loss somewhere else on City parks property that would attract and maintain a viable population of these magnificent butterflies as in years past. It could be done, but that would need the Imprimatur from those that run the town.

Would Crescent Bay Park sustain an overwintering site, or possibly Heisler Park? Haven't a clue, but it would be wonderful if that could be achieved. As Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise in the 90's sci-fi TV series, Star Trek: The Next Generation would say: "Make it so."

-Google

 Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard

-Candace Fallon, The Xerces Society

Head on over to read the complete article at:

 

Victory for Monarchs in California!

"Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden."
~Orson Scott Card

Art Shapiro on butterflies via Annie's: https://vimeo.com/134664426. For those of you who already have a butterfly garden or are interested in possibly creating one, Art's presentation hosted at Annie's Annuals & Perennials is a must-see.

All of the info in the video will pertain to our SoCal region too, as Annie's is located near Oakland, California. "Close enough for government work." as we used to say at the City.

Monarch Butterfly Rest Areas Coming to Texas Highways is an article highlighting what the Texas Department of Transportation along with The Native Plant Society of Texas has up their sleeves to help with Monarch butterfly migration through their state. What a great idea! Would love to see more of this type of cooperation between government and the populace along our own transportation corridors, instead of using so much non-native species. Another added benefit besides supporting native animal populations? California natives by nature are water misers!

  Monarch Butterfly Rest Areas Coming to Texas Highways

Update: As previously mentioned in the August 15th newsletter, the passion fruits on my passion vine have been ripening: they are drop dead dee-lishous! I cut them in half, scoop out the seeds and pulp, and then eat all, except for the skin. Tastes like guava on steroids.

-Andrew Kliss

Passiflora edulis. Passion Vine, "Purple Possum"

-Andrew Kliss

  

These passion vine leaves are beginning to point towards fall around here, as they start to fade, turn yellow, and then fall.

-Google

The primary reason I chose to plant passion vine, is that it's the host plant for the Gulf Fritillary butterfly. "Purple Possum" was selected for the rich quality of fruit it bears. Nature provides us with many species of passion vines, and with these, we create a myriad of hybrids and varieties. Some (I believe all) produce stunning flowers, while their fruits are "Myeh." or "Blphf!". If choosing one for your own yard, a little googling will go a long way in helping you to choose what variety is good for your wants.

Beware of red-flowered species and hybrids, as they are reported to be toxic to Gulf Frit cats.

"To this day I cannot see a bright daffodil, a proud gladiola, or a smooth eggplant without thinking of Papa. Like his plants and trees, I grew up as a part of his garden."

~Leo Buscaglia

It seems like all of the Monarchs around here have vanished, although there are some smallish-sized Monarch cats on the milkweed plants here at the Container Butterfly Garden. The great Monarch butterfly migration has begun in the Midwest, on their way down to Mexico to overwinter. Midwest population counts have been up this year, which is a good sign. With habitat restoration projects now in place and more planned in the wings, plus more gardeners now planting milkweed in their gardens, counts should continue to climb barring any environmental or man made setbacks.

We'll wrap up nectar plants with some miscellaneous offerings. There are many, many more flowers that butterflies find beguiling than those published in this blog. The list below contains plants that are generally known to attract. I either don't have experience with them, or they don't work well in the Container Butterfly Garden. Bear in mind that some flower preferences are regional: what works in one area may not attract in another.

Plants in the compositae family are usually good bets. These include sunflowers, daisies, asters, plus a host of others. All sport daisy-like flowers consisting of a middle disc tightly composed of tiny florets surrounded by larger rays of petals.

-Google

-Google

These are all members of the daisy family, compositae.

Notable candidates are Tithonia rotundifolia, asters, cosmos, rudbeckias, the coneflowers, zinnias, marigolds... to name a few.

One thing to watch for when mulling over which daisy-type plants you whish to add to your garden, is single vs. compound flowering plants. Singles are the typical sunflower-rayed blossoms with a ring of petals surrounding the inner florets. Compound varieties sport flowers where there are multiple rows of petals, many times hindering or obstructing butterflies from getting to the nectar in the tiny florets.

The single varieties of marigolds are wonderful additions to a garden, as they also contain properties that are said to help ward off insects such as aphids. A few planted around the base of susceptible plants such as the milkweeds may have a beneficial effect.