Good morning, Corky...
Even at 7' your butterfly bush is huge compared to ours. We had 5, one didn't make it and only three bloomed but not that many flowers. Because of what I've read, we always cut ours down to the ground in March...
So glad to hear you have many swallowtails and that you do have a pasley backup plant... that was good thinking!!! Why don't you take the leaf off your milkweed, the one with the Chrysalis and clip it to something on your deck... that way you can watch as it emerges and keep it safe!!! We've had two days of rain and thankfully the day I released the 6, the rain had stopped for a bit and they all fluttered away... but yesterday I had three that emerged... it was only drizzling, so I brought them outside and put them under a tall juniper for shelter... well, this morning when I went out to get leaves for the remaing cats, I spot two of the three still there... it's still misting out and it's only 60*!!! Hoping the sun comes out at some point!! So I go get a few leaves from the milkweed... bring them inside and what do I see, a small cat on one of the leaves!!!! So now I have 2 large cats, soon to go into Jhook and 2 teeny tiny ones that I will have to 'cook' for... I'm glad they will be safe and warm inside with me!!

I pray that the hurricane doesn't come anywhere near you or LI... the weather has been crazy all across the world. Start putting things away that can easily be blown around. Take care and keep me posted!!!

I was intending to follow your suggestion about theChrysilas and took a look at it this morning and it had changed to a dark black color so figured that I was looking at the beginning of a black swallowtail but later in the day was disappointed to see a small hole near the top and on closer observation could see several small ants crawling around so figured that it had been attacked by a parasite. The backup parsley plant lasted no more than a day so went to the grocery and purchased three small packages of organic parsley leaves (all that they had) but don't think that will be near enough! This seems like what happened about this time last year and think the females must go on a laying binge, which should allow a few to make it even though many would be preyed upon. The hurricane has increased in intensity and seems to be headed in about the same direction so it's just a waiting game for now, and congrats on your two latest orphans! We did get a short duration thunderstorm this afternoon and is the first rain we have received in some time and had watered prior to it as some of the larger baskets were wilting. Hopefully, this storm will not affect you guys although there may be a slight chance that remnants could bring some heavy rains. We have taken care of about everything except taking the hanging baskets down and securing some of the deck furniture, so shouldn't take too long to complete! You guys take care and will try to keep you posted!