Spring Has Sprung

I love Spring in Florida. I know it is going to get blistering hot in a very short time so I spend as much time as I can outside right now. I took some photos today of all that is going on here. Things are blooming like crazy and growing inches in a day. I love all this new life everywhere. My little birds will soon be gone, but flowers and butterflies will take their place. Hope Spring has sprung at your house too. Want to share?(if you get bored with plant stuff you should just skip this post)

This year I tried planting some bulbs. These are Freesia. They are supposed to be very fragrant flowers. I hope to enjoy them all season. I'll post a bloom photo later.

These are my 2 pots of Gladiolas. I planted 3 bulbs in each pot. So far only 2 in each are sprouting.


We moved all our Day lilies this last year and they love where we planted them. I am excited to see all the blooms we will have. I'll post a blooming photo later.

This is my almond tree/huge bush plant. It has the most fragrant blooms and the butterflies love it. The only thing bad about it is that it is HUGE and it took over my front butterfly garden. I've adjusted to it now, but it was sort of a shock at first.

This doesn't look like much, but this is a healthy, growing, coveted Paw Paw tree. It is the host for my favorite butterfly, the Zebra Swallowtail. These are hard to grow and this year mine is getting huge. I'm so excited about this one!

This plant is called a Hercules Club and it is food for the Giant Swallowtail caterpillar. It has wicked thorns on it and is slow growing.

These plants are food for Black Swallowtails and White Peacock caterpillars. You can find host plants at Biosphere Nursery on the west side of town or Lucus Nursery on the east side. To have butterflies you need nectar plants and host plants.

This is my crazy gone wild Lady Banks Rose Trellis. We didn't trim it back this year at all and it is absolutely filled with fragrant little white blooms.


This is my honeysuckle vine. It went crazy this year and did not freeze like everything else. I'm going to have to get another trellis for it to grow on. I planted it for hummingbirds...no luck so far. The yellow sulfur butterflies like it though.

Another reason I love spring. The flowers are so beautiful. This is by my front door. I love lots of color!

This is my latest butterfly project. My sweet husband indulges my passion for butterflies and helped me to set up this new area in our back yard. I shook seeds from a specially designed bag over the ground he and Matthew had prepared. It is supposed to be flowers for butterflies and hummingbirds. If anyone knows how to attract hummingbirds I would love to know. I've planted stuff, hung feeders and in 7 years I've seen maybe one or two.

Cute Catherine and her cute friends. Ours is the 3rd one from the left. She'll soon be 13...she is growing up and will soon be Sarah's Maid of Honor..."da moh" according to Sarah..."da pain in my bootie" according to the momma sometimes, but I wouldn't trade my girl for anything.

Davie ran 25 laps in her first "Race For Education". She did a great job. Unfortunately I said I'd pay $1 per lap. Bummer.

Hope the weather is lovely where you are. Spring has sprung...now get outside and enjoy it. Love, js