Suddenly it’s 90 degrees! 32 Celsius sounds so much cooler. However you take your temperature, it’s hot. The garden is responding in kind and producing hot colors.
I performed a swallowtail butterfly caterpillar rescue while cutting flowers for the vase. The dill has been going to seed and I witnessed a beautiful lady swallowtail butterfly laying eggs on the dill. So did several lizards lurking nearby. The tiny caterpillars had hatched and were just starting to devour the dill when I cut the flowers. The cats were relocated to a parsley far away from the lurking lizards. I’m enjoying the dill flowers and I hope the caterpillars are enjoying the parsley. I did not realize how much parsley I had planted and it all came up! Happy to share with the swallowtails and I hope I see a few more.
Success! The caterpillars have easily doubled in size from when I moved them. I am wondering how much parsley they can eat.
A closer view of the vase:
There are two kinds of orange tubular flowers. The lower flowers are Firebush (Hamelia patens). The upper are Mexican Honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera). Long red flowers are Nodding Hibiscus (Malvaviscus arboreum, depending on who you ask) Red spikes are Salvia coccinea. Dill flowers, of course and the creamy spikes are from Juba Bush (Iresine diffusa)
Thanks to Cathy for hosting this weekly meme. Visit her blog at MoreVases to see more vases!
The Shrub Queen 
Are fennel flowers like dill flowers? I got my first bronze fennel this year (not by choice), but it has not bloomed yet.
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yes, very similar.
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The Queen of red flowers! You have so many where you live. I love seeing them but have barely met any of them!
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I feel the same way about your flowers.
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What curious caterpillars, with their single light stripe – I hope they appreciated the rescue mission! 😉 As always, you have created a vase that shouts sunshine, with the oranges and reds and bright contrasting greens – you seem to have a natural touch ps have you had the photo shoot yet? If so, how did it go?
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The caterpillars go through a few instars and end up looking like the ones in Alice in Wonderland, big and striped. I think butterflies have a 1% survival rate, so I move them around sometimes. The photo shoot was a lot of fun and it rained! Still working with the magazine on dessert recipes.
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Will you tell us more later, or have you posted about it already?
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Your vase is vibrant, as hot as your temps. Exciting to know the swallowtail caterpillars are safe.
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Thanks, Susie. I am looking forward to this forecasted cold front. Cats are going strong.
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Ame to the rescue! I’m glad you helped the butterfly larvae evade the lizards and got a beautiful arrangement in the process.
https://krispgarden.blogspot.com/
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Thanks, Kris. same here.
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Hot colors to match the weather (better you than me, hehe)! I plant extra parsley every year just for such rescues. Between the self-sowing dill and parsley, I try to keep them well fed.
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I think the parsley knew this was coming. Hoping to see the butterflies.
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Your vase and temperature are red hot. Can’t believe we are going to hit 90f up here in the north.
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Hot, hot..but we are getting a cold front, are you?
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It doesn’t look like it. We are going to be in the high 80s to low 90s. The area is down 4 inches of rain, and no rain is in the forecast.
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wow, 78 is the high here today. weird. I think we are down 24 inches, but its raining.
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I am intrigued by your caterpillars! The only swallowtail we have is the old world one, and the caterpillars are bright green and black, blending into dill foliage well. Love the use of dill in your vase, as well as those lovely hot reds and oranges. 32°C is much too hot for me… how do you survive?! We had barely 30°C last week and my brain just stopped functioning! LOL!
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Air conditioning!! We have numerous swallowtails here. One is called Giant and eats citrus leaves. I will have to take more photos, the cats fascinate me. The lizards are annoyed though.
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Beautiful arrangement and fascinating about your catterpillars. I noticed I had commented on a previous post where you wrote about your swallowtail butterflies. That was in 2018 so we have been chatting for 8 years or more. I don’t know where that time has gone.
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Thanks, Liz. I started blogging in 2013, I think. You were one of the first people I met. Time flies!
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That’s when I started. Goodness, all those posts, you’d think we’d have run out of things to say by now.
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