Share my first introduction to Pipevine Butterfly caterpillars. Imagine my glee when I looked closer and closer at those tiny cats on that leaf, until it dawned on me: You are meeting your first ever Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars! That was a special moment at the Butterflies & Blooms Briar Patch Habitat in Eatonton.

I’d spent 2 decades looking out for Pipevine Swallowtails, they quite ‘Uncommon’ in western Pennsylvania. We planted pipevine in our 303 Garden in Eatonton, Georgia, and we’ve hosted cats for the last 2 years. There are not cats there yet, although we have no doubt that Mammas will come along and deposit eggs a 303. Our 800 Macon garden  . . . has no Pipevine plants yet, and we have to correct that oversight. Pipevine plants trellis nicely, require zero care, and we’ve not had them bothered by pests or pestilence.

Seeing a Battus philenor male, dorsal (upper) or ventral (underside) in just the right sunlight, at just the right angle? Worth a Yelp! for sure.

Jeff