FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

A while ago I bragged about the butterfly garden I prepped for my wife, so she could create a little zen area for herself. She was especially wanting to attract Monarch Butterflies, but all the research indicated that it would probably take a couple of years before the plants would be big enough and they (the butterflies) found them.
Along with many other butterfly and hummingbird friendly plants, she planted three different varieties of milkweed. One variety of milkweed is somewhat rare, and a lady in Wisconsin just gave her seeds for it. They needed to be cold stratified, good thing she knows a guy that could help with that. She even found a milkweed forum like our carnivorous plant forum, she got serious y'all. Also, bless her heart, she let me plant something in the corner. Cardinal Climber seeds I got from DragonsEye. Look at those suckers!
Well, it paid off. Not only is the garden filling out nicely, but she was able to attract Monarchs in her first year.

This is the garden now. And, although there are over half a dozen Monarch caterpillars, this is the biggest, about an inch long. She's so happy.

That is awesome! I'm glad she was able to get the monarchs.

I love butterflies too! I get it from my mother. She plants milkweed and parsley for the Monarchs and Southern Swallowtails respectively. Then she also has several flowering plants that attract butterflies like coneflowers, lantana and butterfly bushes.

That looks great.

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What a beautiful garden. I planted sunflowers in my vegetable garden and was able to attract humming birds and bees but no butterflies.

Y'all's yard looks great! Are those banana plants in the foreground?

Actually yes, they are banana trees. I just planted them about a month ago.
They are the mini ones, and I still experience cold low enough that I don't expect the trees to survive the winter. However, the roots should be insulated enough so they'll come back every year.
I am only growing them for the leaves anyway, they add a really great flavor in slow roast pork or chicken. Or, instead of corn husk, you wrap them around tamales and steam them.

Wow I’m growing 2 lemon trees and a fig tree.

That is great work by the ChefDean/wife team!!! So glad that she was able to get Monarch caterpillars in the garden the first year. Simply amazing and very rewarding

If you are looking for cold hardy banana trees that will grow well in TN. look for "Musa 'Basjoo" the banana's are not good to eat but the rest of the plant looks very nice. I have regulars who buy leaves all summer long.

That's awesome man! I tried getting some plants to bring in some monarchs around my outdoor bonsai. Definitely not as nice looking I've heard all kinds of things people do to keep their plants warm during the cold days. Heavy mulch is a go to; if they're small you can throw a tarp over them during the night and it may protect them. Some hang lights on them to project some heat. Just some ideas to keep you from having to fight the same battle every year lol.

optique wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 2:08 am If you are looking for cold hardy banana trees that will grow well in TN. look for "Musa 'Basjoo" the banana's are not good to eat but the rest of the plant looks very nice. I have regulars who buy leaves all summer long.

Mine are divisions from one of my neighbors trees, they have a couple different varieties. These will do fine here, but I may have to cut them down to soil level every year, that's what they do. I'm going to cut one and leave one to see how they do.
She is from the Caribbean, and she hates bananas, but she loves cooking with the leaves, which is what I will be doing too.

^ dang. That's cool.

In india, they make something called a curried leg of lamb. Rub the leg with curry spice, wrap in onions, tomatoes, chili's, and then a banana leaf. Then the thing cooks for eight hours. I'm not sure if you wanna try it, I don't even know the name, but just an idea...

hungry carnivores wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 3:03 pmIn india, they make something called a curried leg of lamb. Rub the leg with curry spice, wrap in onions, tomatoes, chili's, and then a banana leaf. Then the thing cooks for eight hours.

Sounds like barbeque: low and slow.