Butterflies on Fuerteventura

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Bit chilly today for working in the garden so I did some indoor jobs but I took time to have a wander around the garden to see what was in bloom/growing:

Flamboyante tree sprouting new leaves.

purple flowered chives, local, are they edible? I've not tried eating them yet, just my white garlic chives.

Datura, Blackcurrant Swirl, survived the calima/winds fine.

  Don't know the name but I can smell the fragrance this year!

one of my favourites, going mad as usual. The lizards pull the flowers off to eat!

Honeysuckle propagated through layering.

self seeded basil - batch of pesto coming up!

Drago and Swiss Cheese plant all looking happy.

Really hoping my banana will fruit this year - it's put out some enormous new leaves. When I was in Madeira last month I was advised to water over the top as well as around the base, like rain, the leaves are certainly responding!

the guaydil is about to burst into bloom, covered in buds.

if you peer carefully at the middle of the pic you can see a pigeon/dove? sitting on a nest in the tree.

the same trees, false peppers, have a passion flower scrambling through them, overgrown from the fence.
 

hope your milkweeds are ready, saw my first Monarch yesterday! And I really must get round to weeding out    the butterfly posts in this thread and putting them all together in their own thread!

Tomorrow I'll add the pics from the raised borders - lots in flower there.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

A few more things growing in my garden:

an Aloe tree with the ubiquitous wild lavender. 


a rescued potted poinsettia from last Christmas, it'll go in the ground later:


seedlings of Caesalpinia gilliesii, Desert/Yellow Bird of Paradise in bloom - my original plant gave up the ghost after 3 brilliant years 


this shrub has responded well to a severe pruning:


seedlings under a milkweed, I think 2 are milkweed and 1 the previous shrub with yellow flowers which is next to it.


the milkweed has bloomed all winter and dropped hundreds of seeds.


Yellow Datura v Blackcurrant swirl Datura seed pods:
 

the desert roses are coming back to life with lots of growth buds, this particular one has even started blooming!:
 

a new plant waiting to go in the ground, the flowers are like tissue paper, so delicate:


one of my disasters, statice, I've tried 3 plants now but they seem to do well for a month or two and then give up.
 

Thunbergia erectus blooming against the wall and a very strong looking mirabilis seedling:


I'm delighted with the way my new raised beds are filling out, apart from the statice, especially the rosemary horizontalis at each end:
 

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Warning!
Check your Milkweed plants and Oleanders - the oleander bug is back   



This was the sight that greeted me on one of my milkweeds today, 2 days ago it was completely clear!

Remember the only safe way to clear off the milkweed and keep the plant safe for butterflies is to squash the little blighters with your fingers and rinse off with a mild, soapy spray - good luck!

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Saw a Monarch butterfly in the garden the other day. Today I spotted eggs and some tiny, tiny little caterpillars on one of the milkweeds   

 

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Definitely Monarch caterpillars - the colours/stripes are clear now.



Wondering if I should cull now so a few have plenty of leaves to munch on? Would gladly share the caterpillars but obviously not possible at the moment.

[Tardis]

Definitely Monarch caterpillars - the colours/stripes are clear now.



Wondering if I should cull now so a few have plenty of leaves to munch on? Would gladly share the caterpillars but obviously not possible at the moment.

Wait until they are about 1 to 1.5 cm long and then cull.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

The monarch caterpillars are munching away and growing quickly. This little fella has spent all his time eating seed pods rather than leaves!

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Tardis that time lapse photography is beautiful! Thankyou. Hopefully you will be in a position to do this for a Monarch emerging? 

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

This 'new' thread is now open for postings. 

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

The caterpillars have stripped the milkweed they were born on so I've been moving them to other plants.



Found this one on a stone under a leafy milkweed, thought he might be off to pupate but I think he was blown off by the gusts of wind this afternoon. I placed him back on the plant and he was soon munching away again.



Sowed a load more seed today to increase plant stock, hopefully. Quite a lot self-sown in the garden as well.


OMR - how did your seed do that you bought in especially, the Super Milkweed?