Milkweed

I bought two butterfly weed plants (Asclepias tuberosa) from Native Nurseries almost a week ago.  They were sitting on the porch for two days, and then I moved them out to get some sun in the yard.  I finally planted them today in the native garden.

This is the second time I've planted butterfly weed.  Third if you count the seeds I scattered not long after I moved in.  The plants I added last year bloomed and died, hopefully just from lack of water.  I'm being more vigilant with watering this year, hoping to keep all my natives alive and blooming next year.  Besides the two previous butterfly weeds, I lost my Piedmont Azalea.  So my goal is to keep the Florida Flame Azalea watered enough to bloom in the spring (it didn't this past spring).

While planting the butterfly weeds, I noticed one already has a Queen caterpillar on it.  I'm not sure if it found its way to the plant from my yard somehow, or if (more likely) it was on the plant when I bought it.

This site explains the difference between Queens (above) and Monarchs.

Hopefully, this one will enjoy the buffet, but not invite too many friends. I want to get these plants established before they get mauled. 

In the garden, my experiment to see how big one of the Thai Long Beans will get continues...

20 inches so far.