Sunflowers

The sunflowers are ready to be planted this week. Great job everyone!

Chrysalides

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The caterpillars look like they have been eating all through the long weekend. They seem much bigger than when we left on Friday! You can see that two have already formed their chrysalides. Next step is to transfer them to their tents. Just a few days more...

Caterpillars are here!

Our caterpillars arrived on Friday, and they are settling in to their temporary home for the next few weeks. They came with their own food and containers, in which they will live for the next 7-10 days. During this time, they will make the fascinating change into chrysalides. They will climb to the top of their containers and hang down "head first." Within the chrysalis, the old body parts of the caterpillar will transform to the beautiful parts that make up the butterfly. Stop by and check them out!

Caterpillars

As the plants are planned and mostly installed in Miss Carolyn's Garden, we turn our thoughts to the creatures who might live there. We knew from the beginning that we wanted to attract butterflies, so to go one step further, we are going to grow them inside the library while we are waiting. Here are some photos of the habitat we have set up in our ground floor display case. Larvae and food will arrive by mail in the next week or so, and anyone who visits will be able to see them grow! To learn more about the life cycle of a butterfly, go to The Children's Butterfly Site.

What a Difference a Week Makes

We have some very thirsty sunflowers here! If you haven't planted yours, there is still time, but please stop down to the library soon. Do you know that sunflowers exhibit heliotropism? At sunrise, the faces of most sunflowers are turned towards the east. Over the course of the day, they follow the sun from east to west, while at night they return to an eastward orientation. Learn more about sunflowers at wikipedia.org.