Leave a comment on this blog post by midnight EST tomorrow (August 28th) if you would like to win a year's subscription to Wilder Quarterly.
In your comment tell us briefly where you live* and what butterflies you have seen this month (and how they tasted, says Estorbo - ignore him). If you have seen none, tell us that, too. The giveaway is open to everyone, anywhere. Except my mother. Sorry, Mommy.
Don Estorbo de la Bodega Dominicana will choose the winner. He say he uses a method he saw used in a checkers game in the Bodega but he won't tell me how it works. Presumably it is laborious and will involve counting his toes many times, and sometimes his tail, by mistake. He left the Bodega before he learned how to cheat.
The winner will receive a year's subscription of Wilder Quarterly (four issues, at a value of $60, plus local or international shipping), a gardening magazine published out of Brooklyn and covering all things horticultural.
The Summer 2012 edition saw articles about sphinx moths and plant-inspired music and learning how to divine water and the kitchen garden of Ferran Adrià's protege Andoni Aduriz and drinking punch in Red Hook and the history of African American influence in suburban landscape design and foraging in a Texas suburb and botanical perfume distillation. There are no ads in the 144 page publication, with the exception of a Mrs Meyers back page spread, where you are offered a little packet of actual basil seeds.
Let the butterflies begin!
* Folks, be sure to say where you are. No addresses necessary but give a geographic location (town or region is fine) to be eligible!
Wow. Cool contest. My butterfly bush flourished this year and brought many, many Monarchs to my tiny concrete back yard. Big ones, too! Also some white ones...what are they? They like the wild bergamot out front, too, but the butterfly bush is the big draw.
ReplyDelete"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you." ~Nathaniel Hawthorne
ReplyDeleteI live in the Midwest (St. Paul). My daughter has an enormous sunny garden where I have seen a few (not many) lovely butterflies this summer. Alas, I do not know the name.
I have been growing butterfly friendly flowers this year from a mix I found at a Supermarket here in France. I live in a very isolated part of France so it's rare to find such things. Anyways, I shall keep collecting seeds and sowing each year and plan a great flock of butterflies to arrive here. Meanwhile most of our butterflies are white or Painted Ladies, Peacocks, Red Admirals, Tortoiseshells and the Meadow varieties in browns and blues.I have also been snapping off twiglets of Buddleia and propagating all sorts purple delights for the future.
ReplyDeleteYay, butterflies! I live in Central VA. I like to call it "centrally located" because that sounds better than "the middle of nowhere" :)
ReplyDeleteIn the last month: Buckeyes, Monarchs, lots of Variegated Frits, Tiger Swallowtails, Spicebush Swallowtails, Red Spotted Purples, Wood Nymph yesterday, scads of skippers (I never learned to distinguish those), an Eastern Tailed Blue, and after this weekend's rain we had an explosion of Silvery Checkerspots. I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones I remember :)
I hope everyone else fared as well :)
So few butterflies this year, the least I can ever remember maybe made worse by a horrible wet and cool three months in late spring/early summer. The few I have seen have been cabbage whites, brimstones and common brown heath ones. I have memories of clouds of brightly coloured butterflies in my granny's garden when I was little, so sad my kids will never experience that.:(
ReplyDeleteI work at a garden center in southeastern VA. This has been an amazing year for butterflies and moths.
ReplyDeleteI've seen Astyanax, Viceroys, Compton Tortoiseshell, Monarch, Buckeye, Painted Lady, Golden Banded Skipper, Black, Eastern Tiger, Palamedes, Spicebush and Zebra Swallowtails. And various other Skippers and Duskywings.
I gave away two parsley plants to a customer just yesterday as long as she was willing to take the caterpillars with them. There are caterpillars everywhere.
Thanks for a great contest! I covet that magazine.
That sounds like a really interesting magazine! This year I've seen monarchs, swallowtails, fritillaries, wood nymphs, and painted ladies. Not as many as usual, but we moved across the state to a much drier place so that probably has something to do with it.
ReplyDeleteLMSunshine33ATgmailDOTcom
The Monarchs are massing here in Toronto, presumably carb-loading for their autumn puddle jump across Lake Ontario. In our garden they mostly graze on the phlox and bergamot. So lovely, but a little sad because they signal the end of summer.
ReplyDeleteMonarchs and way too many white cabbage moths (do they count?) in Seattle
ReplyDeletei live in nova scotia. recently, i've seen a mustard white and lots of monarchs on clusters of pink echinacea.
ReplyDeleteWe saw may butterflies and moths on the Yakima river this past weekend, but none that I knew - Eastern and Western Washington are apparently very different!
ReplyDeleteDamn -I'm not eligible.
ReplyDeleteBut I want to know - those white cabbage butterflies, do they have a green tinge on their wings? The story goes that they arrived in the Cape on a Russian container ship.
They have no natural enemies here and their offspring thrive on sharp, astringent things like nasturtiums, rocket (arugula) mustard lettuce. The eggs are laid in clusters and they do overnight damage.
Looks like a great magazine! I plant for the butterflies! I have seen painted ladies, monarchs + many monarch caterpillars, tiger swallowtails, black swallowtails + caterpillars, spicebush swallowtails (can't find a caterpillar of this one and its driving me crazy!), cabbage loopers and more I do not yet know.
ReplyDeleteI'm blessed to be working from my garden patio today, bearing witness to constant stream of butterflies drawn by my zinnias in the vegetable garden. They are orange and black and gray, with white spots. They seem so much like monarchs in my description, but they are not. Thankful for all the pollinators and 66 Square Feet...
ReplyDeleteI live in the Connecticut Valley. This has been the worst season for butterflies. All that I have seen are a (precious) few of the little white ones. I assume that they are Cabbage butterflies, but don't know for sure. Last month I saw a few Monarchs, but that's it.
ReplyDeleteI live in Washington, DC and I've seen quite a few monarchs in the past month or so. They seem to love the bronze fennel and agastache I planted. You recommended these plants a while ago on your blog and they are working out beautifully here in DC! xx
ReplyDeleteHere in Oregon I've mostly seen Cabbage Whites and Moths. I have seen a few others but don't know what they were. This is a reminder that I should put in more butterfly plants.
ReplyDeleteI live in the northwest corner of Montana on 35 acres.
ReplyDeleteLoads of butterflies lately. Lots of moths too.
I have some butterfly books, but mostly don't ID them, I just appreciate them!
I have loads of flowers that butterflies love so they are always hovering about. Pachi & Zuli love to stalk them.
I commute to work on my bicycle, I found an intact butterfly on the road, road kill, I took it home and used its wings in my art journal. Love your blog!
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI live in a converted barn in a tiny village called Kingston Bagpuize, near Oxford, England. I have seen many many butterflies this month - including (er the names may be different here!) Peacocks, Red Admirals, Cabbage Whites, and er a little blue one. Oh and an Elephant Hawk moth.
We love this blog - (only just found you), and will be featuring you in the world's greatest 100 gardening websites. I run the world's first 'virtual' gardening school at
MyGardenSchool. Please pop by sometime and take a course. We'd love to see you in the classrooms! Great giveaway by the way - hope I win!
Elspeth
I saw a delicious butter-colored butterfly in my home area of Western Massachusetts, the beautiful Pioneer Valley. He is a bit common, and also related to the cat family and bird family.
ReplyDeleteEastern Tiger Swallowtail
and you can dance to it too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNh-IAXaB7I
There have been several different butterflies and moths in my garden in Rockland county, NY. Many monarchs, of course, and a a black butterfly with orange and bright blue spots (Limenitis arthemis, I think if I looked it up correctly). I don't know if moths count but there was a Clearwing hummingbird moth yesterday. It didn't seem to mind my presence and really looked and sounded like a hummingbird!
ReplyDeleteAndrea
Central Virginia (Richmond) and I have been seeing lots of Black Swallowtails, cabbage whites, skippers, and many monarchs on the buddelia.
ReplyDeleteTell Don Estorbo I will send him treats if he chooses me - yes, I am teaching him to cheat!
I love Purple giant hyssop (Agastache scrophulariifolia)! Bumblebees love it, too. Do you use it as an herb for cooking? The anise flavour is quite strong. A real Monarch butterfly magnet is Blazing Star (Liatris spp.). My Monarchs fight to get a spot on the wand of flowers.
ReplyDeleteI love Purple giant hyssop (Agastache scrophulariifolia)! Bumblebees love it, too. Do you use it as an herb for cooking? The anise flavour is quite strong. A real Monarch butterfly magnet is Blazing Star (Liatris spp.). My Monarchs fight to get a spot on the wand of flowers.
ReplyDeleteOoooooo! I've been seeing Wilder around and it looks lovely. I have not seen any butterflies recently which makes me think I should head out to the garden with a sun hat and a book!
ReplyDeleteI live in Brooklyn and visit my parent's house often in northern NJ. We've noticed an abundance of monarchs this summer...way more than usual!
ReplyDeleteI live in
ReplyDeleteLet's try that again???
ReplyDeleteI live in Tucson, Arizona and YES we have seen butterflies! I believe mostly Monarchs. What I love about these fluttery creatures is that I often see their shadows before I see them!
Dear Marie,
ReplyDeletelast weekend I saw 2 brimstone butterflies, dancing a pas de deux in the wild corner of our backyard, which is located close to Cologne, Germany. And many more butterflies, beautifully installed at Tate Modern Gallery London, in an exhibition from Damien Hirst. A good reflection on how ephemeral life is for every kind of insect.
I see on rare occassions a cabbage white in my small garden as everything planted this summer has been hard hit by the extreme heat.
ReplyDeleteBut up on the Blue Ridge Parkway, there were just tons of Great Spangled Fritillaries on the orange milkweed - just masses of them. Amazingly, I never saw a Monarch butterfly once in the milkweed.
Being in Australia, I'm not sure I qualify, but I have not seen many so far. Soon, we'll see the Blue Triangles, maybe Monarchs, some which look like Birdswings, but aren't, and probably Cabbage Whites. Sadly, all numbers diminishing
ReplyDeleteOff-topics now...have you seen this? Looks good!http://www.tobeshelved.com/2012/08/eat-city.html
PS I disqualify myself from this giveaway.
This spring we planted a bed of ornamentals at the side of our house In Upper Carmel Valley, Ca. To our delight it has attracted lots of butterflies. I'm not big on identifying them, but I love them when I see them. There have been delicate white ones and ones that have markings like the bark of live oaks with orange spots. I love their silence.
ReplyDeleteI live in Kansas City, MO and the butterflies have been few and far between this year. But I have lately seen monarchs and a zebra striped one. Beautiful...
ReplyDeleteTexas -- I have won contests with my photos of butterflies -- but fear those days may be at an end since we were aerially bombed with pesticide to combat mosquitos that may be carrying West Nile Virus. While one of the politico talking heads said that butterflies wouldn't be harmed -- since they could hide under leaves during the spraying -- Alas, unless we sent them a text message, I think they might be toast. So I need to have lots of magazines with pictures of butterflies since the real ones may be gone.
ReplyDeleteI live in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I have planted zinnias, nastursim, morning glories, phlox, and an herb garden. We get many painted ladies and some I can't identify. We also get the cabbage whites and while they are pretty prancing around my garden, they can destroy it overnight!
ReplyDeleteI live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and so far, this year, have seen Monarchs, Cabbage whites, and one Tiger Swallowtail (yellow variety, not black). Am moving to southern Delaware soon, though, so hope the butterflies will be more plentiful there, as there are many butterfly bushes and a far more varied habitat. Yippee!
ReplyDeleteI saw a monarch the other day when I was visiting my parents house in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. It was near a stream that was sadly dried up from lack of rain.
ReplyDeleteI live in Japan.
Down here in Atlanta GA I have seen many butterfly and moth visitors but sadly I don't yet know their names.
ReplyDeleteYour work is beautiful and inspiring!
In east flatush, Brooklyn I saw small white butterflies, dark black one with blue spot and a dark brown one. Have no idea what they are called
ReplyDeleteI live in northern West Virginia, and
ReplyDeletehave seen swallowtails,black and tiger,and fritillaries. Only saw one monarch, but we are watching three chrysalis, due to open soon. Read your blog regularly, thanks so much.
The butterflies flit about my place --amidst lots of lush foliage overlooking a remote waterway, with open spaces in between, high up on a bluff--and I have no idea what species they are, or where they are going. But I feel our lady would approve of this mutually respectful setting; so therefore I'm all in a for a free subscription. And if I don't win (no way), then I'll subscribe to Wilder, anyway. So, there.
ReplyDeleteMy house is on the Virginia side of the Bay, and about six miles up a sylvan little river with the huge name of "Great Wicomico." Somehow, it fits..
I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan and this summer have seen very few butterflies compared to years past. A few monarchs have visited my purple butterfly bush and also a very small black butterfly with yellow patterning that I cannot name. The monarchs are a bittersweet sight as they remind me that the sweet, lazy days of summer are inevitably winding down....but despite this, I am excited to see them each year.
ReplyDeleteI live in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and sadly have seen very few butterflies during this years' warmth. Linked here - http://web.stagram.com/p/232706904055696917_31450338 - is an image I posted to my Instagram account of an orange/black/white variant. Can anyone accurately identify it? Is it some sort of monarch? The other two or three I've seen were similar looking, and chasing each other in circles on Guernsey Street.
ReplyDeleteIn my yard this month in Pinellas County Florida I've seen: a monarch, gulf fritillary, cloudless sulphur, black swallowtail, and gray hairstreak. Earlier in the month I had giant swallowtail caterpillars, but I was away for a week so didn't see them morph.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I had a white peacock, the first one I've seen. This is all still very new for me. I just started trying to attract butterflies a year ago when I found a black swallowtail caterpillar on my parsley plant.
I love your blog! Nancy R
Im in central North Carolina. I've seen skippers, hairstreaks, swallowtails, and cabbage lopper moths (moth, not butterfly, I know)
ReplyDeleteI live in Kentucky . . . viceroys, swallowtails, and cabbage moths have been spotted recently!
ReplyDeleteAlthough rather late in arriving, my garden has finally been graced with (deep breath) Peacocks, Red Admirals, Cabbage Whites, Tortoiseshells, Holly Blues (though not many of these) a Brimstone, a Skipper, a couple of Meadow Browns and a very dark and as yet unidentified winged visitor. Lots of love, Jelli: Rural Leicestershire, England-Under-The-Water :) PS The Cabbage White caterpillars stripped my bank of nasturtiums over night, leaving a forest of pale green stumps. Impressive...
ReplyDeleteMy Chicago, Illinois apartment porch and back yard gardens have been visited by a plague of Cabbage Whites, a couple of Red Admirals, some Common Buckeyes, at least two Painted Ladies, and some moths I have yet to identify. I've also seen all the above around the neighborhood. Hoping for a Monarch sighting before fall! – Helen B
ReplyDeleteI live in Portland, Oregon. The City of Roses, in fact.
ReplyDeleteEarlier in the summer I saw scads of Yellow Swallowtails in my backyard. They spent much of their time in hot pursuit of each other, swirling in raucous trios with such force that I could often HEAR their wings flapping if I was attempting a quiet read. I imagined tsunamis mounting, boulders rolling, and heads chopped off in some distant locale, the obvious fallout of such violent flaps of the butterflies' wings.
There are also a number of lil' Cabbage Whites, but they are so lackadaisical that their flits can't cause more that a stubbed toe.
Yesterday a Mourning Cloak Butterfly flew into the screen house here in New Brunswick, Canada. And then found its way back into the garden.
ReplyDeleteIn Philly we've seen cabbage butterflies and hornworm moths (unfortunately), and some monarchs, and what look like Tortoiseshell butterflies at the Cohocksink Community Garden in South Kensington.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
In the Garden state we've seen spectacular monarchs and swallowtails - and all those frisky, dancing white butterflies. and moth hummingbirds too. (do they count?!) In Manhattan I see some of the same butterflies.
ReplyDeleteI live in Brooklyn baby! And I see butterflies all the time - at the park, on my way to work, out for a run, just being. They are always around me and they make me really happy! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm in northwest Arkansas - about five miles east of Oklahoma & about 20 miles south of Missouri - very far from Brroklyn.
ReplyDeleteI've had lots of butterflies this summer despite the drought. I do grow a lot of things to attract butterflies & I've kept my watering spots filled as well as I could. Sorry, I'm terrible at knowing the kinds of butterflies but trust me, I've had the small purple all the way up to the large orange & the large black & yellow ones. They're all beautiful.
i live in fort worth texas and we have butterflies down here, but don't know their names, so i will say that i have seen some little white ones with a small orange spot on them and some small orange and brown ones, too. the monarchs haven't come down yet. i'm in new jersey right this minute and scared a butterfly out of my sister's garden.
ReplyDeleteI am (for the summer -- I live in New York City) at a cottage in Mackinaw City, Michigan. Recently I have seen an Aphrodite Fritillary in a field where I was picking flowers, a Red-spotted Purple along a roadside, and, just this morning,a Mourning Cloak in my own backyard.
ReplyDeleteAriane
I live in Northeast Georgia about fifteen miles North of Athens. I've seen a good many butterflies this year. However, my lack of identification skill only allows me to list Monarch as a type butterfly that I saw this year.
ReplyDeleteHi Marie,
ReplyDeleteI live in Brooklyn. This month I have seen mainly painted ladies in Fort Tilden and Green-Wood.
I haven't been following your blog for long, but I love your photographs and all your posts about foraging!
I live in DC, but I've been in Minnesota visiting family for the last two weeks. Monarchs abound. My uncle is an entomologist, and being totally comfortable with bugs he most likely could describe the way butterflies taste. He was pumped to try the 19-year cicadas, which are considered quite the delicacy. I, on the other hand, wouldn't eat something like that unless I was starving, or physically coerced.
ReplyDeleteI live on a farm at Mudgee, four hours drive west of Sydney. Too cold for butterflies at the moment, leaving free airspace around my vegetable garden for willy wagtails to dart around.... if not disturbed by magpies and the odd hawk.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your blog.....such a delight.
What a lovely idea. I have crown flowers here in Maui in my garden. The monarch butterflies emerge from them on a regular basis, providing the kids (and all of us) a chance to watch the process of cocoon to butterfly. They are a joy to behold. I have a beautiful photo. Let me know if you would like me to share it.
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