Butterfly garden in south LA

i have a full bed and lattice devoted to maypop, the butterflies this year were/are amazing because of it. it will die back in a freeze so its best to plant in the spring. if you know where a wild one is, or you have a friend with one you can dig up a big root now and plant it...it might not sprout before winter but it should in the spring.

if you are in the area (BR/hammond) i can give you some root and also some fruit to try (seeds).

other flowers the butterflies like include lantana, zinnias and the wildflowers you just planted. host plants (eggs/caterpillars/cocoons) include the maypop, dill, milkweed and citrus.

at one point this summer there were clouds of butterflies on my flowers...its amazing

Butterfly Gardening for Louisianians

Butterfly Gardening in Louisiana - Video

Host Plants for Butterflies LSU AgCenter Video

Native Passionflower is as hardy as can be. If you can find one plant it now - it’s a perennial herbaceous vine. Many of the winter herbs will attract butterflies - dill, etc. if you allow them to flower.

Start now - don’t hold off.

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How did the caterpillars from earlier in the Summer turn out? Did they make it? I think you're the poster who had them.

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Some did, I just realized I never posted a picture of them. We had ab out 10 caterpillars but only 3 made it to cocoon and then 2 of those ended up coming out. I wish I snapped a picture of them beautiful swallowtails. My little ones have been asking me ever since then to find some more so that is one of the reasons why I am planting this garden. I have been seeing a bunch of butterflies flying around lately and my 2 citrus trees are full of small caterpillars right now.

Thank y'all for the info. I have some native Passiflora Incarnata seeds that i planned on starting today and will see if I can get them through the winter. If not, I'll start some more from seed early next year so they can be ready for planting come spring

Zinnia's all day - for the win

Another cool thing you can do with the kids as you get the butterfly garden going is start an iNaturalist account to use with them. It lets you take pics and upload them for ID and tracking what you see. It will help you (and the kids) ID stuff, and members of the community can ID things for you. You can use it for butterflies, all other insects, plants, trees......everything in Nature. It keeps track your observations so you can know what you saw when and where. It is cool to see just how much stuff is out there in the yard.