How to Raise Gulf Fritillary Butterflies on the Alabama Gulf Coast Zone 9a

[@Backlight-cs3qu]

“Old lady perfume and ginger”…😂😂😂

[@gulfcoastbutterflygardening]

Haha! I know! It sounds weird, but somehow it is pleasant!

[@marlonsantana6266]

2:06 they are trying to mate.

[@gulfcoastbutterflygardening]

LOL! Yes! I think they may have wished for privacy!

[@harvini1]

I love this video.

[@gulfcoastbutterflygardening]

LOL! I’m glad that you love it! I hope you will be inspired to garden for butterflies! It’s so rewarding!!!

[@niccidee782]

Lovely :)

[@gulfcoastbutterflygardening]

Thanks!!! I hope you are encouraged to plant some passion flower vine and host your own gulf fritillaries next year!

[@niccidee782]

@@gulfcoastbutterflygardening I have over 30 species of passiflora. Now I'm working on the asclepias and fennel so I can get me some monarchs and swallowtails :)

[@gulfcoastbutterflygardening]

@@niccidee782 Oh, yay!!! I’m about to do another video in a few days and I am going to talk about my fennel! - I love that you have so many passion flower vines!!! - Did you tell me what kind of passion flower vine I had in the first part of the video? I can only read the first part of the comment.

[@niccidee782]

@@gulfcoastbutterflygardening Yes, but I had forgotten it's scientific name. The first one you show is commonly called stinky passion flower, scientifically called passiflora foetida. I personally don't think they stink, but some people do. The second is the common purple passion flower, in which the fruits are either purple or yellow, but mostly they come through purple. It is the commercially grown passion flower, for it's fruit and juice. *I'd love to see your video on the fennel. Mine sat in the shade so long it is wiry, but I still got 11 swallowtails that are now morphing. Growing more to place in a sunny spot now. :)

[@gulfcoastbutterflygardening]

@@niccidee782 Wow! That’s cool that you have swallowtails now! I have a few chrysalises that didn’t emerge this summer and I am stuck having to babysit them through the winter. - I’ve only managed to grow one kind of passion flower that produced fruit and it was red and about the size of a large gum ball. - I saved some seeds from passion fruit that I bought at the store and I plan to try to grow that this spring. That will be an adventure! - Have you grown your passion flower vines from seed? Or gotten them through cuttings? What planting zone are you in?

[@maritzaramirez5965]

Hello, thanx for sharering, i learn to much from you, first of all, sorry if i write wrong, because i Speak Spanish, im from Mexicali, Mexico and today i was experience for the first time how to a Fritillary Butterflies emerge, but a i have a cuestion, i hope you can help me, do i need to hang a pupa i a took to put into a fishbowl?

[@gulfcoastbutterflygardening]

Thanks, Maritza!!! I’m so glad that you are liking my videos!!! - I’m sorry that I don’t understand the question! Can you ask it another way?

[@belovephotos8286]

Great video! Probably I missed some information. My son growing these butterflies from caterpillar to butterfly. We have passion vines at home (inside). Caterpillars look happy with that. But when they come out we try to feed them with sugar water, pineapple, orange, and banana. They just became weak after 3-4 days, stopped flying and ..... This happened with just two of them for now. At this moment we have 5 chrysalises and 6 small caterpillars. How do we have to feed them and on what day release them? Thank you so much in advance.

[@gulfcoastbutterflygardening]

Oh, no! I just saw this comment! I usually release my butterflies on the day that they emerge. That way they can go find their own nectar. It’s way easier! LOL! I hope that your butterflies have been doing better!!!

[@maureenmcclendon1924]

Your instructions on attracting gulf butterflies was so good and clear. The caterpillars are scary with the little black spiky things all over. I probably would never touch one. I and watch joyed watching you interact with your sweet butterflies.

[@gulfcoastbutterflygardening]

LOL about never touching one of the caterpillars! They are a little intimidating at first for sure!

[@alariderusa410]

I live in your area. I am looking for a landscaper to create a butterfly friendly space. Can you PM me?

[@gulfcoastbutterflygardening]

@@alariderusa410 I don’t know any landscapers at all. It would be great if someone started a business like that!!!

[@luckygirl4235]

I planted a red passion flower vine spring of 2021 not knowing anything about butterflies or their host plants. I did notice this summer that I had an abundance of orange butterflies all over my back yard. My sister pulled down some of the vines that were encroaching on the gutters and threw them in my trash can on the patio. A few weeks later, I opened the trash can to discover 4 beautiful butterflies atop the discarded vines. This piqued my interest, so I started searching the web. I discovered that they, indeed, were Gulf Fritillaries. Upon further investigation, I found the vine covered with the caterpillars. Here it is January 30, 2022 and I still have caterpillars of all ages. The butterflies are sparce, but the caterpillars aren't! You said in the video that red passion flower vines are poisonous to the caterpillars. Are there different kinds of red passion flower vines? I'm now using your information to research host plants for other kinds of butterflies to plant this spring in my zone 9a, Houston area, garden.

[@gulfcoastbutterflygardening]

I’m so glad that you discovered your butterflies and then even found some in the trash!!! How cool to come by butterfly gardening by accident!!! - I have read that red passion flower vines is poisonous, but there mist be different kinds that are and also are not. Shady Oaks Butterfly Garden sells butterflies and also red passion flower vine, so I bet I could get a straight answer from them! I will have to ask them! - You are on the cusp of an addictive gardening adventure!!!

[@PassionCanopy]

Does the red passion fruit vine gro fruit?

[@gulfcoastbutterflygardening]

I don’t know if it does, but the red flowers vine is supposedly toxic to Gulf fritillary caterpillars.

[@JohnForsythe-x3t]

Just cut down 99% of a huge passion fruit vine we had, found 9 caterpillars and raised them in container. Now I’m concerned how to have the butterflies repopulate. Do they ever use another plant as a host ?

[@gulfcoastbutterflygardening]

Oh, no! I can understand why you would want to cut down the passion flower vine once it got scraggly, but that’s the only thing that Gulf fritillary caterpillars eat. I hope you can fond some more to feed them! Maybe you can find some growing wild on the side of the road or check on Facebook marketplace or Craigslist and ask if someone will let you have some passion bine cuttings to feed your caterpillars.

[@MrScaryPasta]

LOL. How’d a Black Swallowtail get in your cage with the Gulf Fritillary? I’m stumped. 😂👏🏼

[@gulfcoastbutterflygardening]

LOL! I don’t remember! I will have to rewatch it to find out what you are talking about. I will get back to you in a little while!

[@MrScaryPasta]

@@gulfcoastbutterflygardening I’ve just released two butterflies already. Although a couple died due to premature emergence. But that’s just nature I guess. It can't always be a happy ending.

[@gulfcoastbutterflygardening]

@@MrScaryPasta I’m so glad that you have been raising and releasing butterflies!!! I’m sorry that a few didn’t make it! It’s true that sometimes things go wrong, and it’s a mystery why some don’t make it. - I rewatched the video to find out about tue swallowtail chrysalis. I had raised swallowtails in that cage and there was one chrysalis that didn’t emerge. I left it on the lid of the cage and it emerged in the spring. Sometimes they wait until next year to come out and that’s very frustrating for me because then I have to babysit it for a long time.

[@MrScaryPasta]

@@gulfcoastbutterflygardening Ooh. Sounds like it was worth the wait. We got Giant Swallowtails here in California. Sometimes they lay eggs on our citrus trees.

[@gulfcoastbutterflygardening]

@@MrScaryPasta Our giant swallowtails also use our citrus trees as larval hosts! I’m always looking for them!