Even without knowing exactly what they were, I was sure this wasn’t your average “pest”.

As perennials go it is short-lived, but reseeds easily. Susie Merry Johnson liked this on Facebook. My current fiction writing projects include a completed manuscript and several works in progress.

Colorful blue-green, and copper-bronze foliage is a beautiful contrast with the green foliage and bright colors of summer annuals.

03.31.2020 at 1:26 pm. So easy to grow, that I highly recommend cutting off the flowers before they set seed. The fennel was covered in caterpillars. Thank you. Bronze Fennel is a unique colored host plant for attracting Black and Anise Swallowtail butterflies.

Resistance may vary in your garden, depending upon the animal population and food supply. I have all the stages of growth, from eggs to butterfly, photographed (macro) of the black swallowtail butterfly. It is a perennial, it grows really tall, and it changes color and texture in a lovely way over the season. Then one winter all the bronze died and weird things started. So, rather than just weeding out the bronze fennel seedlings that had sprouted up around the parent plants, I dug a few of them up and put them into pots. Bronze fennel is not only ornamental, but serves a purpose in the life cycle of certain butterflies. http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/eastern_black_swallowtail.htm. I like the taste too so I can relate.What attracted me to this plant was the fine-textured foliage and the dark and rust colors it turns. All host plants for Swallowtails. When it blooms, Bronze fennel flowers are tiny but prolific, and grow on umbels. I believe the secret to a good life is... Read more.

As it turns out Bronze fennel is one of the favorite host plants for Swallowtail butterflies and while in their caterpillar phase they love feasting on fennel. Has tiny dull yellow flowers in the summer.This one is hardier than the other fennel's. My one huge plant was an ecosystem in itself!

Since swallowtail butterflies lay their eggs on any member of the Apiaceae family, you might occasionally find them on your carrots or parsley as well.

Change ). We only have one kind of Swallowtail in the UK, and then only in a few places. It is a vigorous grower, and its color can be used very effectively in the border. If you want more on growing fennel check it out, here. The variety 'Purpureum,' also known as Bronze Fennel, has dark, smoky foliage to a height of 6', an attractive backdrop in perennial borders where it adds a soft, airy, somewhat mysterious look. As a garden plant, it is utterly fantastic. Freelance travel writer. The plant in this image, I planted last year, and it's now close to 4feet tall, if not higher. Near summer’s end it puts up stalks covered in tiny yellow flowers. I think that the teensy caterpillars I noticed in the Stop and Shop parking lot are the first instar of eastern black swallowtail caterpillars.

Positive: On Jul 26, 2003, PurplePansies from Deal, NJ (Zone 7a) wrote: I have many stages of their growth photographed as well.

Well, we didn’t go straight home from Bramble Hill Farm, because once you are out and about doing errands with the car, you may as well multi-task. There are a lot of websites that have information about swallowtail butterflies’ lifecycles. The foliage is a feathery, brownish-copper in color [when it emerges in the spring] and it heavily reseeds, so if you don't want them popping up all over your beds, do dead-head them.

Plant Name:  Bronze Fennel, Smokey Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare ‘purpureum’ or ‘rubrum’), Quick Info: Easy to grow / herbaceous perennial / sunny / culinary Herb, Bronze colored herb in the carrot family, licorice flavoring like other fennels, Please see complete growing conditions and details for Bronze Fennel Plants (Foeniculum vulgare purpureum/rubrum) under our seed description.