Mom set out several pots, a bag of potting soil, a watering can, and the bag full of my catnip clippings. I planted the stems just like I’d done with the African violet leaves for my friends. As we worked, Mom explained that not all plants grow well from pieces—only certain kinds, like aloe or herbs. I felt pretty lucky that catnip was one of those plants!
When I was done, I stood back to admire my work. “Will this be enough, Mom? Won’t the caterflies need to eat these?”
A caterfly landed on my wrist. “Silly Zoey. We don’t eat plants. Blech! Only caterpillars like the taste of them. We drink delicious nectar from flowers. Like butterflies!”
“Ooooooh, nectar!” several caterflies purred.
I looked around the greenhouse. “But we don’t have any flowering plants. How will you eat?”
“Well, we usually drink nectar from the forest flowers, but we know a trick.” The caterflies giggled. “If we want to try different nectar, we sneak into garden stores. It doesn’t hurt the flowers. There’s plenty of food there. And it’s warm inside!” purred the caterfly on my wrist. Then it popped into the air and flew to the greenhouse roof. “We can come and go through here. It’s useful to be small sometimes!”
The caterfly fluttered back to Sassafras, who was thrilled at the attention from the tiny creatures. Mom and I worked together to add the catnip stems to the different pots. When we finished, we stepped back and grinned. Sassafras had curled up on the workbench and was snoring lightly. And so were the dozen caterflies on his back. Mom tenderly placed the eggs at the bottom of a new catnip plant, and we tiptoed out of the greenhouse.