Here is a recent picture of our fennel plant. It's approximately 4' tall now and has some nice yellow flowers topping it, which the bees enjoy. It's doing great right where it is and has been since being put in the ground.
Now don't be fooled into thinking that we had any intentions of eating this herb, no sir. This plant was purchased and planted for one purpose and one purpose only - to attract butterflies. Specifically, butterfly caterpillars and more specifically swallowtail caterpillars.
The above picture shows precisely what we intended to attract - a teeny, tiny swallowtail caterpillar. In fact there were approximately 8 to 10 of the little dudes feeding and taking refuge on the lower half of the fennel.
Our plan was working and we successfully attracted the caterpillars! However, this excitement was short lived. We'd check on them everyday, count them and note their progress but one day they were gone, all of them :-( We don't know for sure what happened to them but suspect they became a snack for the birds.
We continued to check and not too long afterwards several more appeared and Emilie was excited. I wrapped the fennel with bird netting in the hope that this would prevent the birds from getting at them and give them time to grow but again this was short lived and this second batch disappeared too, just like the first. We still don't know for sure what ever happened to them and no more have appeared...
Fennel Fun Fact: In Greek mythology, Prometheus used the stalk of a fennel plant to steal fire from the gods birds.
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