My Grass Tree No.7 is in the ground in the new garden area

and it has been raining.

There is nothing like a few negative ions to perk a plant up!

You can see the little plants growing at the base of the trunk.

Pretty cute eh!

GT no. 7 is an Australian Native plant Xanthorrhoea Johnsonii#(N)

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Previously I posted a few photo's of caterpillars eating my

Crown of Thorns*(E) plant

The caterpillars (4) turned into cocoons in the last

week of April 08.

This photo below is the the moth which emerged.

Achaea-janata has quite a lovely tail section!
(oops! he lost that bit of his left wing when I tried to photograph his hind-wings)

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Tally 89 + 7 = 96

(two doubtful- seedlings not thriving)

Cheers

Over this weekend...

I have re-potted my No.5 & 6 Grass trees.

No.6 (on the Left)has really long leaves for a small plant.

No. 5 has an upright stance.

I used Australian Native pot mix from Big W.

I was very careful not to disturb the roots ...they hate it!!

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A Caterpillar Update!

They have all got cocoons!

*click to enlarge*

I have numbered then to show which ones took the plunge first!

They are expected out in the spring...

I have to separate them and take photo's of each too identify which

moths come from which cocoons!

The caterpillar with the white on it's head is in cocoon No.2.

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Tally 2 new babies = 87 ... (Pic's later)
87+7 =94

Cheers

Yesterday ...

I added this photo to show this tiny little plant which is the one most likely to fail!

(go on prove me wrong, ...please)

It was planted at the same time as his/her pot-partner!,

Alas I tried to delete a line and the whole blooming photo disappeared!

(click to enlarge)

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Caterpillar update -

This photo shows the white spots on this resident in the insect house.

That leafy thing there on the stalk is a pupa wrapped into the dry leaves found hanging on the plant. I added the whole stalk to the insect house.

Here we see a green leaf added to cocoon, under that leaf is the white spotted caterpillar from the previous photo, and it happened overnight! What a little cheater, used most of his companions cocoon and only added 1 leaf!!! (the small green leaf above the flashed yellow leaf)

You can also see another (3) Caterpillar having a chew on the leaf at the top of the photo, this one has No white on it's head.
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Tally still 84+7=91

Cheers

Even though it's getting Cooler the little plants are still popping up!

Planted on the 1/4/08, came up 23/4/08

If you enlarge this photo (click on)you will see some of the plants have extremely long leaves.

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An update about the caterpillars on my Crown of Thorns.(Euphorbia splendens), they are possibly Croton Caterpillars (Achaea janata) or his cousin ? due to not having white dots in the head area... I found this information here and from the very helpful Don Herbison-Evans.

My Plant is growing ever Slimmer!

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Grass Tree Tally 84 seedlings + 7 = 91

(I also had the 2 doubtful plants die and planted 4 more seeds)

This one is not growing well! (corner pot)

Sprouted Mid/January/08

I expect it to croak! Meanwhile I'm trimming off the leaves that die.

The center pot is also in strife!

This is one of 5 seedlings from my No.1 Grass Tree.

Planted 30/10/07 - probably took 16-20 days to sprout.

So this little one has struggled along for 5 months... gosh!

One of the doubtful ones died yesterday, the above one came onto that list so I still have 2 in doubt! The Tally is 85 seedlings.

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Something a little different...

I have one of these plants in a pot, not sure of the name, something starting with a P I think!

It is a bit like a cactus as it has treacherous spikes on the stalks!

It has 4 temporary residents!
These guys/gals!

(click to enlarge photo to see spines)

They are eating their house Down!

I have no idea what sort of Butterflies they turn into? (if anyone knows feel free to tell me) I'm leaving them though... I will probably lose 1/2 the plant by the time they are through!

The amazing thing about it is, How the caterpillars can climb about on the plant when they are so soft! and the plant so spiky!
Cheers