The Crooked Garden
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The Crooked Garden |
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AVAILABLE Now! Butterflies , Birds, and Wildflowers
of
Southwest Florida "Thank you" gifts that you can receive when making a donation to the “CROOKED GARDEN”,
the butterfly garden at
Pelican
Preserve .
Royal Palm Exceptional Center is a special education center
school in Lee County.
May I have the pleasure of presenting to you: Thomas & Suzanne Buck
This Black Swallowtail exhibit was on display in June and July of 2009 at the pergola in the Butterfly Garden.
The Lehigh Acres Garden Club was a Recent visitor and contributor to the Crooked
Garden.
Check out the new tree added to our Crooked Garden
5.06.09
During a recent visit to her grandparents, Pelican Preserve residents Sue &
Dave Bell , Audrey Meloche gets
A sincere appreciation goes to the
graduates of the February 2009 PROTECT YOURSELF™
Course for their monetary donation to the "Crooked Garden".
The Brooks Garden Club visits the Crooked Garden.
After studying the butterfly nectar and host plants in the garden, the group
enjoyed a leisurely lunch at
Now visitors to the Crooked Garden can get
"Up close and personal"
with the caterpillars that create the magic in the butterfly
metamorphosis. There are butterfly enclosures in the pergola area of the
garden that are
holding and protecting two different special
of butterflies from our garden.
The Monarch and Black Swallowtail butterflies are regular visitors in our garden. The females deposits their eggs on the milkweed, parsley and dill, and their caterpillars are beautiful to behold. Unfortunately,
we have found way too many chrysalis that
have been attacked and killed while they were waiting to emerge. These
"butterfly castles" are a way to protect them so that they can safely
complete their life cycle
under our protective care, and then, when
the butterflies emerge, be released into the garden.
This is also a wonderful learning experience for those who have not had the pleasure of watching this progress "up close and personal".
There are four (4) chrysalises in the Black Swallow tail enclosure. Three have formed on the plant sticks placed in there for that purpose, and one has formed in the front right corner of the enclosure. It won't be long before we have butterflies emerging in these enclosures 
  
June 7, 2008 - Adult caterpillars moved from
June 12, 2008 - Adult Monarch caterpillars final instar to chrysalis
Crooked Garden milkweed to enclosure
Black Swallowtail
enclosure, June 5, 2008
Black Swallowtail caterpillars, June 6, 2008
We hope that you visit the Crooked Garden to
personally monitor this amazing metamorphosis.
The Giant Swallowtail butterfly in The Crooked Garden
on the underside of tender leaves on the Wild
Lime and Calamondin Orange trees.
Her eggs are perfectly round and golden in
color. This egg was laid on the underside of the Wild Lime tree.
In about a week a caterpillar is hatched, and it
immediately becomes an eating machine. The caterpillar looks just like a
bird dropping. It uses this clever disguise to keep it from
being a part of the birds (and other natural
predators) food chain. This first caterpillar (left photo) is on the stem of
the Wild Lime tree, and the other (right photo) is on a leaf of
the Calamondin Orange.
 
In a few short weeks this caterpillar will grow
to 27,000 times its original size from when it originally hatched.
The head of the Giant Swallowtail caterpillar
looks a lot like the head of a dog, and when the orange growers in Central
Florida found them on their orange trees, they nicknamed them "Orange
Dogs".
The following images were taken just a few days
after the ones above. This caterpillar is an eating machine.
This caterpillar looks like it has a head and
eyes, but they are Just protective features that give the caterpillar a
"fighting chance" to complete it's life cycle.
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The little red horns that protrude from the
front of the caterpillar are called osmeteria, and are extended when the
caterpillar fells threatened.
The osmeteria secrete a foul order that is
supposed to ward off or repulse a would be predator. Not all caterpillars
have the osmeteria. They are a special feature of the Swallowtail family of
butterflies.
This Giant Swallowtail caterpillar has grown to the size where it will soon begin it's final instar (shedding it's skin), and transform into a chrysalis. 
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The Crooked Garden curator is securing a mesh
observation enclosure, that will be on display in the garden pergola. In the
near future you will be able to visit the Crooked Garden and observe these
caterpillars (in this mesh enclosure) in their various stages of
metamorphosis. This protective enclosure protects these caterpillars from
the many garden predators like wasps and birds, and allows them to pupate
(become a chrysalis).
in the safety of the enclosure. When the
butterfly emerges for the chrysalis, we will release it into the garden.
This will provide a wonderful learning
experience for those who have not been able to see these caterpillars or the
chrysalis in their previous visits to the Crooked Garden.
This is just another reason to make the Crooked
Garden one of your regular destinations.
The Sable palm and the Strangler fig out in front of the garden hedge
has lights on it as well. P.S. The garden light show is not yet completed...
 NOTE: The Zebra Heliconian (Heliconius charitonius) is Florida's state butterfly. Found throughout Florida, the delicate adults may live for several months. Females deposit small, yellow eggs on young leaves and tendrils of the Purple Passionflower, and they may produce numerous generations each year. (A generation represents the complete butterfly lifecycle)
Curator James Price, with wife Karen, along with garden
dead header [plant stylist] Judy (and husband Bob) Weil, released the little
guys at
two different Passion Vine locations in Crooked Garden.
Prior to this release these new butterflies had been in
an 8'x10' screened in "nursery" that contained their "host plant" the Passion
Vine,
and several other nectar plants as their sole food
source.
Some of the Zebras made a Bee Line to the Passion Vines
close to their release area, and started enjoying the nectar from their
"host plant".
While many of the other Zebra Heliconian were like kids
in a candy shop, enjoying the abundance of nectar available in the 12,000+
sq. ft. Crooked Garden.
The blue flower is
Golden
Dewdrop (a Florida native plant), and
the white flower is the flower of the Star Jasmine shrub.
 And yet another Zebra enjoys the nectar from a yellow Blanket Flower (another Florida native plant).
We are looking forward to seeing more Zebra Heliconian
butterflies in the Crooked Garden this summer because of Nick Bodven's
generous gift.
Don't forget to follow the progress of the Crooked Garden
on this educational and comprehensive website.
P.S. Did you know that there are now solar flood lights
on the butterfly statue and the Sable palm and Strangler Fig at the Crooked
Garden entrance?
It is definitely something to see after dark!
Once the butterfly emerged and his wings were fully developed, the bag was
removed from the tree and the Palamedes Swallowtail
Don't forget to visit the Butterfly Garden Photo Gallery before you end your visit.
Page visits since 2.24.08 |
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