My {fence} field of dreams with Kevin Kostner.

On By SuzIn In the land of butterflies

Way back in December, when the world was semi-normal we started working on updating much of the landscaping.

I wanted to add in more butterfly-friendly elements. I already had everything set for my monarch, queen, eastern black swallowtails, Giant swallowtails, and gulf fritillary community of flyers, but wanted to add in some more swallowtails to the mix. {why so many links, Suz?}

I have a secret to tell you.

I haven’t shared this with everyone.

I have my very own butterfly guru.

I have only had him since December, but I do adore him. His name is Michael, but I refer to him as my guru. I thought I knew about butterflies but darnittoheck, he knows everything about butterflies.

He told me I needed to plant pipevine; I’d read about the pipevine prior and I did want it, so no arm twisting was involved.

He said if you plant this THEY WILL COME!

Perhaps less ominous-sounding in real life.

He brought over two pipevine plants. Hmmm…they, they look like a regular vine. So far, nothing to wet myself over.

But, can you just plant them in the ground?

Hell to the no.

This is a special vine that needs special equipment; it needed a professionally designed and installed espalier. 

Did you know that there are people on the planet that their job is to design and install these?

Kind of reminds me that I need to blog about the guy who injects our palms; he’s a professional palm injector.

Now that I say that out loud, it sounds dirty.

I digress.

Here are my baby pipevines back in December on their custom espalier.

Then a few months later.

This is the weird bloom it makes.

My eyes have seen a lot of things, but they ain’t seen nothing like that…see how I slipped into my southern drawl? 

Do you remember health class in school? Is that an ovary or a fallopian tube? 

Again, I’m off track.

The pipevine attracts different types of swallowtails depending on where you live; in SW Florida, it attracts the polydamas swallowtail.  Which, I swear I have NEVER seen in person.

Not sure why I have to swear so much but it feels good.

Unknown
Polydamas pic borrowed from UF/IFAS

So, I’ve been training my vine every few days; I move the growing vines around the wires to keep them attached as they grow.

Remember training bras?

This is nothing like that I just wondered if you remembered those.

When I’m out there doing my training, I can hear Michael, aka the Guru, saying “if you plant this, THEY.WILL.COME.”  He doesn’t even look like Kevin Costner, but he’s in my head.

The other day I went out for my training, and guess what.

Wait, did you hear a sudden high pitched squeal around noon Eastern time on Thursday?

IMG_3861
Max is such a poser.
IMG_3858

I have polydamas babies!

I wanted to shout it from the rooftop that I have eggs and larvae thriving on my vine.

But, our roof is really tall, I struggle with vertigo and it’s hot outside, so a blog post will have to suffice.

I was so excited I almost wet my pants. Which really, at this stage isn’t unusual.

BTW: spellcheck wants me to change the name to polygamous. Weirdos. 

So, that was my exciting butterfly news for last week.

Life is good in my butterfly world and that makes all the hard to swallow pills easier.

XOXO

21 thoughts on “My {fence} field of dreams with Kevin Kostner.”

  1. Wow! This is so cool. Your (considers going back to post for legit name but decides to be lazy) vine is really impressive. And those little itty bitty eggs- awesome.

    I am cracking up at the fact that you have a guru. I rarely plant anything. If a guru entered my yard he would throw his hands up “I cannot work in these conditions!”

    And yes, I remember training bras. I have barely graduated to real bras.

    Congrats on your butterfly success!

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  4. I didn’t realize there were specialists to help out with your kind of project. But your guru sounds like the best. Congratulations on the progress you have made, and I hope you will soon be able to post pictures of polydamas swallowtails taken in your own yard.

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  6. bibliomama2

    “Hey Baby, can I come over and inject your palms?” Yup. Dirty. Don’t even get me started on “pipevine” I will just gaze on your garden and think of your growing season with lust and envy. With my husband working at home and not having baseball obligations, our back yard has never looked better, but it’s still small. And Canadian.

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  8. That is exciting. I love hearing about butterfly info. I had my first visit (that I saw) from a butterfly this week. I live on the second story and get a pretty good wind coming through which I think is a little too strong for them since I see them downstairs. I guess this guy was an alpha male into roughing it.

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  12. Pingback: This, that and the other thing. The Princess of darkness edition. – Busy Bee Productions

  13. Melanie Galliano

    How cool is that?! I don’t know if I have ever heard of pipevine but I’m glad that it worked! I might have to look into planting some in our backyard.

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  14. Pingback: Do you know what really gets me going? – Busy Bee Productions

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