As DH and I sat on the porch, enjoying the color of the garden, we were treated to a lovely site. A Monarch butterfly spent a great deal of time in our yard, checking out the flowers, dancing about.
It laid eggs on the milkweed, so I hope to see some more caterpillars soon! I bought 2 new milkweeds at my last visit to the nursery in the hopes of luring those beauties in! :)
Genevieve zone 9
wait...let me get this right...you BOUGHT milkweeds???? as in PURCHASED?? i can't believe it. if ever you have the wonderful opportunity to view autumn in its finest show, come up to new hampshire and PICK all the pods you could possibly want from the native Asclepias (milkweed). i usually just open the pod and let the seeds fly where they like and the next summer i have a field of them.
unfortunately, due to farmers who use the monsanto genetically engineered corn seed, the population of the monarchs have diminished so greatly we hardly see them anymore ;o( i am unhappy to say this condition will probably increase nationwide.
Ha! Yes, I spent money on my milkweed. My garden has no plan, I just go to my local nursery and buy whatever looks like it has nice flowers. Buchanan's on 11th in Houston specializes in native plants. I can try, but I typically can't kill anything I buy there.
The single milkweed I bought last year was completely consumed by caterpillars, so I wanted to add more. :)
I bought (only $2.50 ea) tropical milkweed. Here are pics:
Here in Ohio I don't see much milkweed growing wild. My daughter found some so she brought home a couple pods and I'm starting them in an egg carton. I didn't want to take the chance of just throwing them around.
Buying them is an odd idea, but I can see why you would. I guess it's up to us gardening people to see that there is enough of it around.
Marilyn
I've seen red root pigweed for sale, as well as dandelion seed!
what has corn .. genetically engineered or not to do with monarchs?
Janice
:) what has corn .. genetically engineered or not to do with monarchs?
Wild milkweed often grows near cleared fields for crop. It is feared that the pollen drift from GE corn will coat the MW near the crops thus allowing the BT in the pollen to kill the monarch larva.
Lar. (to e-mail, get rid of the BUGS!!
It is said that the early bird gets the worm, but it is the second mouse that gets the cheese.
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