Spring Festival

[Mikie]

:-)

~Mikie

"Anne Kilmer" <viceroy at GATE.NET> wrote in message
news:3C85FBBE.4090609 at GATE.NET...
> I have hijacked the Spring Festival at Mounts Botanical Garden in West
> Palm Beach on Sunday, March 10 (following Hans' fine piratical example:
> Take no prisoners; recruit everybody).
> It is now a Butterflies for Peace festival, and we'll be introducing the
> Miami Blue Butterfly project as well, handing out the splendid
> identification sheets that John Calhoun has made up.
> We'll be showing live larvae and adults of 10 species of butterfly,
> thanks to Colleen Wiggins, who has a private butterfly house and teaches
> school children how to love butterflies and grow them in their gardens.
> The Mounts has been a butterfly garden for many years now, and there
> will be free-flying butterflies of many species, as well as many labeled
>   host plants and nectar plants in the exhibition area.
> Jose from Amazing Butterflies will be donating and releasing Painted
> Ladies, thanks to Rick Mikula and his negotiation skills ... they are
> local bugs, and will, God willing, be dyed so that we can see where they
> go. He's telling the school children to watch for them. There are plenty
> of larval host plants available in the garden, of course, and
> caterpillars are welcomed.
> I wish some local collector would bring in some Miami Blues, dead though
> they be ... at least people would get an idea of how big they are and
> exactly what to look for. John's sheet is great, but there's nothing
> like a real bug to let you know what it actually looks like.
> Naturally I would prefer to display live ones, and next year I hope we
> can do that. There should, by then, be so many of them that we would be
> batting them out of the way as we walk through the garden.
> We'll be gathered between 11 a.m. and 4, in case anyone cares to come by
> and join in the fun. It's a great chance to talk to families, and to let
> the kids tell you about their butterfly gardens. They are amazingly good
> and enthusiastic. (There's a $3 charge for admission, but if you're
> bringing bugs, email Wendy and me, and we'll sweep you in with grand
> huzzahs and make you part of the display.)
> Meanwhile, the International Butterfly Breeders' Association is working
> on surveying South Florida, working with TILS leadership to find other
> populations of the Miami Blue, set out larval host plants invitingly,
> and prepare for the hoped-for permission to begin rearing Miami Blues in
> the schoolyards of neighborhoods where the populations are found.
> For now, they will find populations, educate neighbors, make sure that
> suitable host plants are available to allow the colonies to expand
> naturally, and educate homeowners in how to maintain and groom a
> butterfly-filled balloon vine (for example).
> So, all goes well, and I hope all of you can enjoy a similar celebration
> of spring, butterflies and delighted children.
>
> Mounts Botanical Garden is on Military Trail west of the Palm Beach
> International Airport. The festival is being held at the west end of the
> garden, near the Clayton Hutcheson Building.
> Cheers
> Anne Kilmer
> Viceroy
> Butterfly Coalition
>
>
>
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