Garden Visitors: Buttterflies Autumn 2013

I didn't start out to create a butterfly garden--it just happened.  As much as we enjoy the circle garden in the backyard it seems the butterflies appreciate it even more since the native plants which do best in that spot are also popular with the butterflies.  While we have butterflies much of the year, the fall and spring migrations bring many different species through San Antonio on their way to and from Mexico.  Are butterflies multilingual?  Maybe another discussion.

They are so much fun to watch and try to identify.  Thanks to the internet I've been working on my ID skills so I can share my itinerate visitors from the last few weeks.

Monarch left and Gulf Fritillary on the right.

Thanksgiving week feast for the butterflies

Butterflies have flocked to the back yard, especially in my wheel garden where milkweed and other flowering plants have enticed them to a Thanksgiving week feast.  We don't see a lot of Monarchs even though they are migrating through Texas to their winter home in Mexico, but a few found their way here this past weekend.

The Gomphrena 'Fireworks' attracts plenty of butterflies like this Monarch.  That's a Red Admiral flitting in the background.

Blooming Memories

Sometimes an otherwise ordinary plant is valued for a special reason not even related to the plant itself.  For me, it is my Pittosporum (Pittosporum tobira) which evokes memories of another place and time.  It isn't among my favorites in the landscape -- until it blooms, as it is doing now.