Daylilies are popular landscape perennials in our area of north Florida.  They are easy to grow, are not picky about soil, tolerate drought and resist pests.  Sounds like a perfect perennial.  Although daylilies prefer sun, they will accept just morning or afternoon sun.

Hemerocallis is the scientific name for the daylily.  Each daylily flower will bloom for only one day.  However, the plants have multiple stalks of flowers with lots of flowers on each stalk, which means the y will bloom for weeks.  Many daylilies are ‘repeat bloomers’ that will flower multiple times in the same growing season.  Some have evergreen foliage while othersvarieties have foliage that goes  dormant after a frost and egrows the next season.  There are thousands of varieties of daylilies in assorted sizes, colors, and flower shapes.  Just go to one of the local growers and take your pick.

To learn more about growing daylilies, visit the North Florida Daylily Society website ( http://www.nfdaylily.com/).

When you see a large, showy butterfly flitting around your garden, a roadside, fields or woodsd, take a closer look. It may be an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), our district’s butterfly, which is a native in eastern North America.  It’s at home in Florida, except the Florida Keys.   From February to November, these butterflies feed on nectar from sturdy plants, particularly those that have red or pink flowers.  Look for adults with a wing span of 3.1 to 5.5 inches. Males are yellow with four black stripes on their forewings.  Females may be yellow or black.   The yellow females have a band of blue spots along their hind wings.  Black females do not have distinguishing markings, they are just dark.  These dark females may be a species preservation mechanism as some predators will avoid them, thinking they are another form of swallowtail that is poisonous.

Two to three broods may be produced each year in our area.  Trees and shrubs of the Magnoliaceae (magnolia)and  Rosaceae plant families are the favorite host plants on which the females lay their green eggs.  As the young caterpillars develop, they are brown and white.  Then change to green with black, yellow and blue spots on the thorax. The caterpillar then goes into a resting stage, forming a chrysalis from which the butterfly will emerge