Butterfly House Finale (2)

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There were still plenty of butterflies and moths to see in the last weeks of the season in the Roston Native Butterfly House at the Springfield Botanical Garden. I’ll miss the conversations with visitors and the quiet times with the butterflies. This year there were times when it was too busy to take pictures and other times when I decided I just wanted to watch the butterflies fluttering or the caterpillars eating. Now the house is closed, and I am savoring the pictures of the past few weeks.

The weather is saying warm and I have fall nectar plants in my yard, so I anticipate seeing butterflies around my house for a while longer. But we are on the glide path to winter and no butterflies. I often feel that the annual pause in seeing butterflies make their reappearance in the spring more precious.  

Butterfly House Finale (1)

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The Roston Native Butterfly House at the Springfield Botanical Garden closed for the season as of last Sunday. There were still plenty of caterpillars even in the last weeks – tiger swallowtails, giant swallowtails, red spotted admirals, black swallowtails, cecropias, and monarchs.

There were a few chrysalises and cocoons too.

During my last two Sunday morning shifts there were about 90 people that visited. It helped that the temperatures had cooled down a little from the 90s earlier in September.

3rd week of Master Naturalist Core Training

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The third week of core training focused on volunteering. Two helpers unexpectedly did not show up so the class was a little stressful for me but still turned out to be an excellent class for the students!

I picked up three tables needed for the field trip from our storage unit before the class and they were dirtier (dust and cobwebs) than I expected…so I got help from my husband to get them unfolded and sprayed clean on our driveway the next day!

The field trip was on a Saturday. After a lecture about how the native butterfly house is sustained, there were 4 rotations where the students shadowed a volunteer….as close as we could get to hands on volunteering. The 4 rotations were:

The butterfly house

The caterpillar café – where we all saw lots of caterpillars and plants they need…and I took a lot of pictures

The bison table (which we do as a school program or a table at festivals). The only picture I took was of the front lower jaw!

Rotten logs (which we do on a tarp on the ground or a table – usually at an outdoor event where there will be lots of children)…and always find a lot of critters….and details for logs themselves.

At least one of the groups got to release a tagged monarch butterfly! And several bought some plants that were on sale in the gardens during the lunch break.

Ten Little Celebrations – September 2026

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September always seems to be a busy month – but this year seems busier than most with the overlay of the Missouri Master Naturalist core training that I am facilitating. There has been a lot to celebrate within the increased level of activity!

Wild Ozarks video – again. Before the core training started, I watched the video again since we were asking the students to view it. I celebrated it all over again!

Core training started. I celebrated when we finally got the roster finalized and got the training started. There were 2 classes and 2 field trips in the last weeks of September.

Cooler morning butterfly house shift. Toward the end of September, the days finally started to be a little cooler. I celebrated that it only got into the low 80s….warm enough for the butterflies to be active but comfortable for humans too!

Rockspan. It was a wonderful place for a field trip – even though the day was hot. I celebrated the breeze, the special location, and that the core training students seemed to enjoy the nature journal session that I hosted for one of their rotations.

Green Heron at Ha Ha Tonka. Seeing a Green Heron is always a celebration for me. Of course, the state park has a lot of great things to see…this was just my favorite for that visit.

Imperial Moth Caterpillars. Celebrated seeing another species that has large caterpillars.

Tree ID workshop. Celebrated seeing so many cuttings from native trees…and the lecture pointing out characteristics to clinch the id.

Field trip to Bull Creek. Another special place…new to most of the core training students. I always find something to celebrate there and this time it was probably observing the students experience it for the first time.

Woodland management in action. I celebrated a field trip to see places where the strategies described in webinars I’d viewed had been applied.

Butterflies. There are more butterflies in my yard than last year…maybe because of the native plants I’ve added. Cause for celebration!

Butterfly House – September 2026

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The Roston Native Butterfly House is open until the first week in October and there are still plenty of butterflies to see: Tiger Swallowtails, Diana Fritillaries, Giant Swallowtails….and more. It has been very hot even for my morning shifts but there are still plenty of people visiting – some from out of town. It is still one of my favorite volunteer gigs.

The usual cecropia moth caterpillars are still eating and, more recently, there have been Imperial Moth caterpillars too.

There are stilt-legged flies around too – looking at ants…until they fly!

The pawpaw fruit is ripening and falling from the trees. I brought one home and ate it last week. I’m keeping the seeds damp and will plant them in my yard – not in the place where I already have 7 young trees!

I’m hoping that my upcoming shifts will be a little cooler….and will miss spending time with the butterflies and their visitors when the house closes.

Hungry Cecropia Moth Caterpillar

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One advantage of volunteering in the Roston Native Butterfly House is the opportunity to see caterpillars as various stages of development. Recently I was lucky that one of them was eating while there weren’t visitors in the house….so I was able to capture a short video. It was a medium sized cecropia moth caterpillar, and it appeared to only want to take little bites of the wild cherry leaf going in one direction!

Ten Little Celebrations – July 2026

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July was hot…making is more challenging to enjoy time outdoors – but I still found plenty to celebrate!

Car chargers on my way to Texas. I noticed that there were car chargers at a place I normally stop along my route between my home and seeing my dad in Texas. That bodes well for me buying an EV next year!

Children in the butterfly house. I enjoy my shifts in the Roston Native Butterfly House – particularly if there are children that enjoy their visit too. Their awe as they follow the flights of butterflies or watch the butterfly get nectar from a flower seems to transfer to everyone in the house!

Spicebush Caterpillar. There was a spicebush caterpillar that disappeared from the plant on the table just as I was leaving….and we weren’t seeing it anywhere. Then as I walked by – I noticed that it was on the other end of the table…crawling along the edge. We all celebrated that it was found and could be put in the pupation cage instead of risking getting squished on the floor.

Gall Webinar. Celebrating an interesting webinar that introduced me to new organisms that I will look for when I am out and about.

Blooming American Spikenard. Celebrating that the plant is bigger and has more blooms than last year. It’s one of the first native plants I added to the yard and probably my favorite.

250th.  It wasn’t as fabulous as I remember the 200th – but still worth celebrating.  

Home alone. My husband was away for almost a week and I enjoyed the time without the television blaring! Then again – I am glad it doesn’t happen very often.

Salmon. I celebrated making a dinner that I wouldn’t make if my husband was home!

Watermelon. It’s the summer food for celebration. I wish we could still buy the big watermelons with seeds that seemed to be even more flavorful.

Missouri Master Naturalist. I celebrated my chapter showing resilience to change….forging ahead.

Zooming – July 2026

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All the images in this month’s slideshow are from around Springfield: the Lake Springfield Boathouse, Springfield Botanical Gardens/Roston Native Butterfly House, and my yard. There is a lot to see this time of year! The weather has been hot enough that I make short forays for photography rather than longer hikes.

Butterfly House - July

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My shifts in the Roston Native Butterfly House in July were hotter; maybe not as pleasant for people but the butterflies and caterpillars were very active. I’ve learned to take more water – and wear a neck fan! The caterpillars included  large cecropia moth caterpillars (that can get as big as a hotdog) as well as tussock moths and red spotted purple caterpillars that look like bird poop. There were still plenty of spicebush swallowtail caterpillars around too, but I somehow didn’t take any pictures of them; I was too busy trying to get them into the cage as they opted to leave the plant to find a good place to make their chrysalis.

The giant swallowtail is laying eggs on the wafer ash and there are all stages from egg to varying sizes of caterpillars on the tree. Based on the number of eggs, some of the caterpillars will have to be moved to another tree (i.e. outside the house) so that the tree will keep at least a few leaves!

The pawpaws are still green. It will be a month or more before they ripen. The thistles that were the big nectar source in June have been replaced with other plants that are smaller but must have plenty of nectar.

The butterflies and big moths are still the big show!

Butterfly House – June

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I had 4 morning shifts in the Roston Native Butterfly House in June. The weather was getting hotter and the house was full of active butterflies and caterpillars…the moths were, as usual, sleeping in their cage.

On the first shift of the month, it had been wet the night before and I noticed a lot of tulip poplar leaves on the floor when I first walked in. Right after I took this picture, I noticed there were a lot of tiger swallowtail caterpillars on the floor too! Fortunately, I hadn’t stepped on one. Getting them off the floor became the priority…and then picking up all the leaves and cleaning frass off the table/sweeping the floor. I was glad I had gone in 30 minutes before opening so I had time to get it all done.

I don’t take pictures every shift…it depends on how many people come in. On one morning there were multiple field trips that came through – so no pictures from that day! I did get pictures of several kinds of caterpillars: tiger swallowtail, pipevine swallowtail, and cecropia moth.

The female Diana Fritillaries were the ‘big, beautiful butterflies’ of the month but there were some monarchs and zebra swallowtails that I photographed as well.

On the way down to butterfly house, I often stop by the rain garden near the Botanical Center. There were milkweed seed pods just beginning to form and skippers visiting the cone flowers there.

June was a good month in the house…I was surprised that with all the rain showers coming through that all the shifts I signed up for remained dry!

Butterfly House Trees

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I decided to document the trees in the Roston Native Butterfly House during one of my recent shifts. All of them are there to provide food for certain caterpillars. So here is a tree tour of the house…starting on the right side as you enter the trees are

Wafer ash for Giant Swallowtail caterpillars

Hackberry for Hackberry Emperor caterpillars

Spicebush for Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars

Pawpaw for Zebra Swallowtail caterpillars

False Indigo for Silver Spotted Skipper caterpillars

Black Walnut for Luna Moth, Polyphemus Moth, and Red Banded Hairstreak caterpillars

(turning back toward the front of the house…looking at the trees on your right)

Tulip poplar for Tiger Swallowtail caterpillars

Black Willow for Red Spotted Purple caterpillars

Of course, there were lots of butterflies and a just-emerged Cecropia Moth that I couldn’t resist photographing too!

Ten Little Celebrations – May 2026

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It seemed like a lot of my activities ramped up in May.

Volunteering

Roston Native Butterfly House. The butterfly house season started and I had 4 shifts….the first one on Mother’s Day. I celebrated that there were lots of butterflies….and people coming to see them!

Getting speakers for fall Missouri Master Naturalist core training. It was wonderful that virtually everyone I asked to speak or host a field trip said ‘yes.’ By the end of the month, I was celebrating that the plan for the training was looking more achievable.

Reconnoiter of a new field trip location. I celebrated a first visit to a new field trip location - rejoicing that is it such a rich place for Master Naturalist activities.

Soil field trip. The field trip to soil pits was one that I had arranged months ago. I celebrated that it finally happened….and how good it was.

My Yard

New native plant garden. Only one of the 30+ plants that I planted in my new bed looks like it won’t make it. I am celebrating that the rest are thriving and excited about how great the garden will begin to look as the warm weather continues. Next year it should look even better!

American Spikenard. Every time I look out my office window, I celebrate that one of the first native plants I bought and planted in my Missouri yard was an American Spikenard. The violets growing under it look great too!

Food

Salmon. I have discovered frozen salmon fillets and have been thrilled at how easy it is to thaw and then bake them at 325 degrees while I prepare the sides…..celebrating salmon at home rather than just in restaurants!

Chocolate cake. I stopped at a diner on the way back from my trip to Lewisville this month….and celebrated their version of chocolate cake!

Travel

Missouri Botanical Garden. It’s my favorite place in the St. Louis area. I like their art in the garden exhibits that have special lighting at night. This time I celebrated the garden with my husband and daughter.

Another butterfly house. We visited the Sophie M. Sachs Butterfly House on the morning after the Missouri Botanical Garden. It was only my second time to see it, and I celebrated being a visitor rather than a docent…and seeing some familiar exotic butterflies again.

1st shift in the Butterfly House

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I volunteered for a morning shift in the Roston Native Butterfly House a few days after the training. It was a cool morning, and I took a few pictures along the sidewalk down to the house. The rain garden is a lot of green right now…but there are buds that will increase the number of colors. I always enjoy the duck sculpture.

The fritillaries are the most numerous in the house…but there are zebra and tiger swallowtails too. There was a giant swallowtail that looked quite battered that I didn’t get a picture of. The thistles were great favorites…lots of nectar there.

There were cecropia moths and cocoons…luna moth cocoons…red spotted purple caterpillars on the willow…pipevine swallowtail caterpillars on the pipevine…and tiger swallowtail eggs on the wafer ash and tulip poplar. It was a good start to the season and a great way to spend my Mother’s Day morning!

My husband was making his way to the Texas Star Party near Fort Davis - his car loaded with telescope and camping gear. One of the pictures he sent was of a butterfly similar … but not the same to butterflies we have in Missouri: a two-tailed swallowtail!

Butterfly House Training

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Volunteering at the Roston Native Butterfly House at the Springfield MO Botanical Gardens is my favorite volunteer gig from May-September. Last week was the final training….in the butterfly house itself.

The late afternoon was breezy and a little chilly when I arrived at the park. I wore a sweater. The gardens on the way to the butterfly house were looking good – trees leafed out…past the spring bulb flowers and waiting for the summer bloomers.

Inside the house there were tiny caterpillars to discover. I didn’t have equipment to attempt to photograph them….but I did make a map of the trees in the house. The photos are of the largest ones: tulip poplar (for tiger swallowtail caterpillars) and pawpaw (for zebra swallowtail caterpillars). The others are wafer ash, spicebush, black willow, and false indigo bush.

Some butterflies were brought in but not released to the house while we were there. They were not very active because of the temperature. There are enough flowers blooming for nectar – butterfly food. There were even some milkweed plants with buds that will be fragrant and full of nectar when they bloom.

I missed the part of the training that was held in the Botanical Center (since I went straight to the butterfly house) but it was evidently the same as last year. The procedures for opening and closing were reviewed in the house…and tips for handling various situations. Even though the way we sign up for shifts is new…the skills I learned volunteering last season and in previous butterfly houses are still pertinent.

Ten Little Celebrations – October 2025

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October included some great volunteer and travel experiences…and plenty at home to celebrate too.

Road trip to Jefferson City – I celebrated the Missouri Department of Conservation Partners Roundtable (particularly Dr. Nadia Navarrete-Tindall talking about edible native plants), touring the Missouri capitol building, and Ha Ha Tonka State Park!

Corn on the cob from the grill - The temperatures were milder…we cooked on the grill more often and I always enjoy the corn on the cob cooked that way.

New faucets on bathroom and kitchen sink - My husband installed new faucets (with a little help from me holding things together while he tightened from underneath). The old ones had been leaking onto the counters when they were turned on. We are both enjoying the dry counters around the new faucets!

Season finale for the Butterfly House - I savored the final volunteer days and the celebration for the volunteers and staff.

Home school fair – I celebrated that so many people visited my table at the Home school Fair and seemed to enjoy learning about trees.

My car repaired – The damage to my car (mostly underneath) was repaired and I have already taken it on a road trip. I celebrated that it was fixed quickly and that it looks ‘good as new.’

Hiking poles – I cheered myself onward during my first test walk with hiking poles…have high hopes that they will help me avoid back pain on future hikes.

Memory care – I celebrated finding two memory care facilities that would be good candidates for my dad’s next home. My sisters and I had a difficult time choosing (and it was stressful)….not something I am celebrating.

New hot water heater and dishwasher – I celebrated that the new appliances were installed quickly…that the hot water heater is better for the environment (heat pump electric rather than natural gas) and the dishwasher is quieter than our old one.

A rainy day - The past few months have been very dry in our area so the rainy days in the later part of October were something to celebrate – although the rain came too late to have brilliant leaf colors this fall. The leaves are still mostly on the trees…muted colors.

Zooming – October 2025

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Seventeen pictures for October. They are mostly from Missouri and some left from September in the Chicago area.

I’m saving the fall foliage pictures until November; I suspect that the fall will be subdued because it has been so dry since mid-summer but I am on the lookout for opportunities to photograph the occasional spectacular tree!

Looking back at previous Octobers…

In 2024, I was enjoying Missouri Master Naturalist Core Training and an Identifying Woody Plants field class at Missouri State University.

In 2023, I made my first visits to the Shaw Nature Preserve and Butterfly House near St. Louis; there was a Chihuly glass exhibit in the Missouri Botanical Garden. My parents were still in their home, and I was enjoying birds in nearby Josey Ranch park.

In 2022, I travelled to London, Ontario with my daughter…passing through Detroit on the way. It was our first fall in Missouri.

In 2021, we made our last visit to Longwood Gardens from our home in Maryland and I photographed a lot of waterlilies. At the time, we didn’t realize it would be our last fall in Maryland.

In 2020, we were still doing most things virtually. Most of the pictures taken at home…a lot of birds at the feeders on our deck and colorful leaves. There was one trip to Conowingo Dam but the only picture in the post is of a stern looking Great Blue Heron.

Roston Butterfly House Finale 2025

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The season for the Roston Butterfly House at the Springfield (MO) Botanical gardens ended the first weekend in October. I continued my weekly shifts.

On some of the cooler mornings in September, the caterpillars were the big show. Sometimes the skippers and hummingbird moths outside the house were more active. As the morning warmed, the butterflies in the house became more active and some seemed to enjoy sitting on people (including me)!

The large silkworm moths (cecropia, polyphemus, and luna) were not as available for display as during the summer months.

There was a very hungry tiger swallowtail caterpillar on a tulip poplar leaf; I made a short video.

My last shift was the Monday before the last weekend. The ‘stars’ of the shift were the Monarch butterflies (looking health and ready to migrate south), a black swallowtail caterpillar, and a luna moth (the last of the large species of silk moths we had to display).

I enjoy this type of volunteering…plant to do it again in 2026 and maybe do even more shifts!

Ten Little Celebrations – September 2025

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September still had some hot days…but there were some cooler mornings that were very pleasant. Our trip to Chicago offered some very different scenery! Lots to celebrate.

A cooler morning in the Butterfly House. It was good to finally get a break in the temperatures. I celebrated being more comfortable…and that there were more people that came to enjoy the butterflies too.

The end of busy morning in the Butterfly House. I celebrated the end of my shift in the Butterfly House when I was the lone docent – a bit frazzled but knowing I had done a good job.  A school group came through (45 students plus parents!). And 3 caterpillars had gone walkabout during the shift but I had managed to get them contained before they were stepped on!

Bill Jarvis Migratory Bird Sanctuary. I celebrated that Chicago has managed to have a wild area in the big city.

Botany at Lincoln Park Zoo. I celebrated that the Zoo had areas that are mostly native plants…and I recognized most of them since they skew toward prairie plants which are the same as the ones we have in my area of Missouri.

Monarch Butterfly over Lake Michigan. I celebrated the surprise of seeing a Monarch butterfly flying over the lake a long ways from shore…hope it made it to the south shore.

Field Museum. I celebrated that I finally got to see the museum. I had missed it when I went to Chicago back in the early 1980s for a class…had always wanted to go back.

Crystalized Ginger. I bought crystalized ginger for our trip on Lake Michigan (it controls nausea for me). I celebrated that it worked and that it is a good treat when I travel too.

A new grandnephew.  I celebrated that my niece and her new baby are healthy and home from the hospital…was in Dallas so I was able to share pictures with my father; the new baby is his third great-grandchild.

My Missouri yard. I love the subtle changes happening right now – mostly still green but more seed pods forming. Soon the leaves will change to their fall colors.

Brunch with by daughter. My daughter and I tried a place near where I live … and both celebrated an excellent brunch that had a triple berry tart at the end.

Pawpaws from Butterfly House

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I have been watching the pawpaw (Asimina triloba) fruit develop in the Roston Native Butterfly House every time I volunteer (about once a week). Yesterday, as I was pointing a group of them out to some visitors, 2 fell off! They weren’t very big, but they were soft – ready to be eaten. I brought them home and thoroughly enjoyed them with my breakfast this morning.

I’ve saved the seeds to plant in pots after scarifying/soaking ….and will plant them outdoors next spring. Since the seedlings will all be from the same genetic line, I will buy a seedling this fall at a native plant sale to provide two genetic lines; I want my pawpaw patch to produce fruit! It might take 5-7 years of growth before they do that.

Butterfly House – September 2025

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I have a shift per week in the Roston Native Butterfly House…and try to take some pictures each time. I generally stop at the beds and rain garden near the Botanical Center before I go to the house.  There are always flowering plants there…and sometimes critters too. I always check the wild indigo in the rain garden….and am waiting for the black seed pods to burst open. There are asters and goldenrod blooming now to feed the late season pollinators.

I unlock the butterfly house, clean the caterpillar frass off the table and sweep the floor before openng at 10. Sometimes it is quiet at first but other days there are people waiting to get in.

During August, the last of the luna and cecropia caterpillars made their cocoons and the Monarch, spicebush and snowberry clearwing caterpillars became the stars of the caterpillar display.

The big moths (luna, cecropia, and polyphemus) were still on display but their eggs are collected/stored until next spring because there is not enough time for the caterpillars to develop and make cocoons before winter.

The shifts in the house seemed busier  this past month so I haven’t taken as many pictures of butterflies and flowers in the house…although I did get a few good macro pictures.

The next post about the butterfly house will be about the end of the season…in early October.