Black swallowtails are laying eggs!

Those black swallowtails have been laying eggs on my fennel. I've collected about 60 eggs lately and am raising them in covered containers. The fennel is about 3 feet high and I will cut about half of it to the ground soon. There is so much of it, it's about taken over a good part of the flower garden. As a perennial, it should come with a warning label ~ "Beware! Fennel spreads rapidly!" I don't mind since it does attract so many black swallowtails. Once emerged as adults, they are very striking when released from a container all at once. I'll try to dry some of the leaves when I cut it. I will collect the seeds in the fall, also. I use the seeds to season sauces, especially tomato sauces.

Florida Keys butterflies

The same trip to the Florida Keys allowed me to see butterflies I never see flying in the wild in Virginia. In a state park, there were many Zebra Longwings, some Gulf Fritillaries and Julias. The park's butterfly garden also looked nothing like the one that I maintain in Virginia. It was mostly wild and untamed native plants, rather than tended flower beds. The flowers were rather inconsequential, but the butterflies were nectaring on them. It just goes to show that a person cannot think all butterfly attractants are the same everywhere. The tropical flowers were all very lush and fragrant in people's yards, but I never saw a butterfly fluttering around them.