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The Tropical Grower welcomes you to the online version of Our Garden. Check out our What’s Bloomn’ slideshow featuring last week’s flowers, cruz the latest topics at the Blog Page for information, enjoy the Photos, or just check out what’s happening this week in Garden Dirt. While we are Growing Tropical, growing is for everyone, and we’re here to share the green.

Garden Dirt

July 13, 2026

Our First Butterfly!

Early Thursday morning as the tropical morning rays were just beginning to peek through the pines, we got our first look at our new baby Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly, newly emerged from its cocoon, inside the Butterfly House.  Woo-Hoo!  It’s the 1st one.  I couldn’t help myself, my gaze turned loving, fully aware it’s an insect.  And, He, as we came to call it, as a name, would take us through a whole gamut of emotions.  At one point, I swore off doing a Butterfly House again, but it all turned out in the end, mostly.

If you’ve been following, you might recall the whole thing happened accidentally.  Me, personally, noticed a huge Black Butterfly fluttering happily through the yard.  I like watching them, the perfect break, and I whipped out the camera.  Generally, Butterflies land and at least pause when they feed.  The ladies kind of continuously flutter, touching here and there, when laying eggs.  Most of my pics are of the 1st because the laying eggs photos are usually fuzzy.  Dang.  The Big Black Butterfly was laying eggs and all my photos and even the video I tried were fuzzy.  Dang.  We posted her anyway.  LOL!

While trying to take pics of her fluttering the Dill plant, in a pot, I noticed there were flowers and took a mental note.  Those needed to go if we wanted to keep the plants.  Either at the end of that day or the next, I snipped the flower stalks and a little of the plant to flavor something.  I did not cut the area the Butterfly was fluttering.  Those got dropped into a little jar of water in the window, and I didn’t notice the little eggs until I came back to wash it.  And, before we decided what to do, they hatched into little black caterpillars.  So, we got a Butterfly House and moved the whole Dill plant inside it because the ones I was now responsible for needed food.  There were more caterpillars freshly hatched on the plant.

Butterfly House

So, for the next few weeks we grew butterfly caterpillars, or as we like to refer to them, Ravenous Beasties.  You can find the updates here: Past Garden Dirt  As of last Monday, we had no caterpillars, only cocoons.  Then, on Thursday, He appeared.  Excitement abound.  There would have been a release party if you could plan these things more accurately.  LOL!  But as excited as My Mom and I were to do a release, we waited about 5 hours for its little wings to fully dry and harden.  There were offerings of flower bouquets and pieces of fruit on a wet sponge, but we waited.

Then, with big fanfare, we took it outside and released it onto one of the Orange Cosmos plants in full bloom.  Lots of food, just in case.  And, it fluttered its wings, walking around on the plant.  Yes, walking.  He walked, flitted its wings, and did nothing.  So, we left it, figuring it needed more time.  When the rains started coming in, we gathered him up and brought him back in.  He couldn’t fly.  The next day was the same, and a wing seemed a little too loose.  We resolved that He probably wouldn’t fly, and when the rains came in, we brought him back inside the Butterfly House.

Resolved, Then Surprised

Saturday morning He was still sleeping when I got up, and I left it there until I was coming in for the morning.  He was fluttering around, and I figured it wanted to go out and enjoy the day, visit with more winged friends.  So back out He went, but He didn’t seem to want to get off my hand and onto the Cosmos.  It took a few tries, and instead He fluttered its wings and flew up.  He landed in the Ligustrum and immediately took off for the Boxhedge.  I started yelling for My Mom and went in to get her, returning just in time to see it take off, into the back, and disappear.  He flew.  Woo-Hoo!  

This morning, #2 emerged.  We’ve decided a single day in the Butterfly House before release.  It’s wet and we’ve been under Heat Advisories.  So, best a day to rest, feed, and get those wings hard.  Our 1st was a Roller Coaster of emotions.  LOL!

Around Our Garden

In between checks on Our Butterfly, we actually did get some work done.  Early in the week we started cleaning up the Compost Area.  It’s been a mess since we put in the Pagoda.  It needs to be completely reworked into the new space, but the Dragon Fruit Cactus was reinfected with scale and needs to be addressed 1st.  We did get the fence reinforced and a Compost Basket was bagged for use.  It’s going to take some time to even make a dent.  Dang.

We did get the outside of the front fence line cleared.  We normally have a 5-6 ft open space to keep the vegetation from growing into the fence, but the electric company trimmed into it, both dead and living stuff they pushed into our fence.  Super nice.  Especially since we’d already done the pre-Rainy Season trim.  I guess it was too much to toss All of it into the chipper they had right there.  LOL!  We also got a few Scheffleras planted out there.  Just pulled them off the other plant and stuck them in the ground.  It is the Rainy Season.

And, we did take an easy morning in Our Garden.  A little light weeding, sweeping the newly mortared section of the Shell Circle.  It’s so much easier than the loose shell to keep tidy.  We finished by dropping some wildflower seeds, including Zinnias.  Never can have too many Wildflowers.  Well, you can, but we like lots.  LOL!

Flowers

Our Indian Blanket Flowers got the Feature, blooming almost all year.  When one plant dies, it’s replaced by others in a continuously blooming cycle.  Woo-Hoo!  Because we have so many all the time, we forget to shine a spotlight on them.  Fortunately, the sun doesn’t forget, making these wonderfully lit-from-within beauties with sparklies in the center.  Yup, the pollen kind-of sparkles in the sun.   They kinda seem like the perfect landing pads for Bees.  And, they are.  Good job, nature.  We have whole areas.

The Tiger Lilies are still going.  We thought they were done, but we got another spike.  Woo-Hoo!  The Cosmos in brilliant Orange are throwing bunches of new flowers all over.  It’s a good thing because we need them for the Butterflies.  Lots of easy pollen.  And, the Blue My Mind Morning Glories filled with the little gems.  Beautiful.  Enjoy!

Check out What’s Bloomn’ slideshow for more flowers or visit Garden Dirt Diary to catch up on what’s been going on around Our Garden.