Until I KNOW something I want more of will self seed in my beds, I collect seed. You never can be sure. I have volunteers from Cleome by the hundreds, but others say they have difficulty with this one. Likewise, I can't seem to get larkspur to seed and send volunteers, but others say they are drowning in them! So better safe than sorry - collect some.

Your lupines WS this year will bloom next year. Mine like full morning sun with some light shade in the afternoon.

I don't know a thing about milkweed but I am sure someone will!

Good luck,
Nancy

Nancy is right. Some things re-seed like crazy for one person and disappear for another. I am drowning in larkspur and love it. Collect and watch.

I can't grow lupins, so I can't answer that.

Once my asclepias bloom, the butterflies love to visit.

Good to know! Thanks Jess

so true - cleomes do not reseed well in my garden, but larkspurs, melampodiums are great - same with amaranthus and perilla - I don't even sow them anymore.

Zinnias have never reseeded for me, but have for others - I don't use any mulch - (bad for the leaves in my gardens because dirt splashes on them - but that's the trade off).

Carrie

Many times it's just the luck of the drawer and some years things will reseed well and other years they won't. That's why I always save seeds of plants I want for next year and WS them.
If there are reseeders than I consider it lucky and just have more of the plant than I would expect.

Lupine, unless the annual kind, will bloom the second year. Those ratty dying leaves are not pretty to look at. Cut them way back to the almost ground level and the leaves will regrow for you and you will have, again, the leaves of the plant to see.

Fran

I took this milkweed photo last August.

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Three photos of self-sown poppies.

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dem_pa

Milkweed probably won't bloom until next year. Definitely control the pods or your downwind neighbors will curse you! I have 3 species: the common "grows in a roadside ditch" [Asclepias syrianca] that the Monarchs seem to prefer, a pink bloomer [Aslepias incarnata] with narrow leaves, and the short orange one [Asclepias tuberosa]. The Monarch eggs look like a drop of Elmer's glue.

Common Milkweed flowers have a powerful scent similar to Oriental Lilies--heavenly! The others have the same scent, but only if your stick your nose in them.

In my yard, the Monarchs only use the Common but my neighbor only has the pink and she gets plenty of caterpillars.

I've been 'raising' Monarchs for over 20 years. I've seen caterpillars eaten by spiders and wasps. Maybe nothing eats the butterflies, but plenty of things eat the caterpillars. I often bring some inside for protection. Last year, an escapee chose a lamp shade to make his chrysalis. I usually pass out the chrysalis to friends with small children. Watching a new butterfly emerge is awesome!

I concur with hoehum--the monarchs in my area seem to prefer the A. syriaca. Last year they kept laying eggs on my one-inch seedlings. I had to move those seedlings, and lost most of them. But this year, the A, incarnata is tall and blooming--no caterpillars. (I've also seen fewer monarchs this year.)

I, too, would see the little caterpillars, and then they'd be gone the next. Something was getting them. :(

Hoehum and stagerat:

Thanks for your info. I have 4 kinds of milk weed planted-- "white", "pink", "swamp", and "tropical" but those all might be the same. I am not sure, got the seeds in a trade. I have 4 kids aged 4-11, and so they are excited to see some caterpillars. How does one bring them inside? In a butterfly cage like I have seen at the store?

Self-seeding is definitely garden and zone specific. The things that I positively drown in from reseeding each year are: agastache honey bee blue, agastache alba, mexican hat, rudbeckia, kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate, amaranth, shirley poppies, oxeye daisies, candylily, echinacea, phlox paniculata, calendula and wild white asters.

My polite to scarce reseeders are alyssum, nicotiana, larkspur, lupines, balsam, annual asters, celandine poppy, sweet woodruff, strawflowers, bachelor's buttons, forget-me-not, rose campion, tomatoes,alchemilla, yarrow, california poppies, sweet william, and 4 o'clocks.

I mulch and garden in a z4a to z5 zone depending on which map you believe. I also have my beds packed, so seedlings have to be pretty tenacious and fast growing to compete with their mature neighbors.

First you need an understanding family! Growing caterpillars poop a LOT!

I cover my dining room table with a plastic cloth and also put newspapers down so I can roll up a layer at a time. I just cut the stalks and put them in vases on the table. The process started tonight because I had to pull the stalks that were blocking the view of my Oriental Lilies. When I checked the pulled stalks I found one 1/4 inch caterpillar and several eggs.

Without rhyme or reason, some cut stalks wilt immediately and others stay fresh for days in vases. The caterpillars eat and poop, eat and poop for 2 weeks. While they are little, I just leave them on the milkweed in vases on the table. They will shed their skin 3 times until they look like the one in the picture above.

Last year I had way more than I wanted to care for because every time I cut fresh stalks to bring in I also brought in more eggs that hatched quite nicely. Most of the caterpillars were happy enough to form their chrysalis on the milkweed--mostly because the vase blocked their escape. However, a few managed to escape. If I found them crawling I moved them to critter cage (plastic box with air holes). Two formed their chrysalis on the underside of the table and another crawled into the living room, up a table and used the inside of a lampshade. I never knew when I was going to find a butterfly trying to get out a window.

When formed on a milkweed leaf, I cut the leaf and used twisties to attach the leaf to my wire fence outside. I had a good 20 or so hanging at one point. My son passed others out to his friends with children and I took several to the nursing home where my mother lives for the residents to enjoy.

They emerge as butterflies about 10-14 days after forming the chrysalis. The day or so before you'll start to see the black body through the membrane. Once the butterfly emerges, it will have small limp wings and a very fat body. It will slowly pump the fluids from its body into its wings--you can watch the body pulsing as the wings grow larger. (It will 'poop' out several drops of rusty red fluid that looks like blood--don't worry, it's normal.) Then it will hang for several hours until the wings harden. When it opens its wings, watch for a pronounced dot on the lower wing. No dot=female, dot=male. That's when you get to name it a 'royal' name.

One year we had a tiny caterpillar that made a tiny chrysalis and became a tiny butterfly--he had a dot so we named him King Tut.

Some caterpillars actually have personalities that demand names before they even make their chrysalis. We've had Shy, Charger, and several named Houdini.

Have fun!

Here is a link that might be useful: monarch pics--some with the male dot

Hoehum! Thanks for the info-- I would never have thought of just cutting the stalks. I may actually try it. I have blossoms on my milkweed now, so I will keep checking for the elmers glue spot. If the cut mikweed wilts-- is that ok-- will the cats still eat it? If you have some escapees that you ban to the plastic critter box, do you put milkweed inside as well? How long do the emerged monarchs need before you can release them? Thanks for the advice!!!!

Jessica

jessica I've had the tropical milkweed for the last 3 years and I've never had it re-seed were it's planted at. Usually it comes back somewhere else in my yard. I've gotten very good at recognizing the leaves so when it's in a place where I don't want it I just dig it up and move it. It's very hardy so it usually survives the transplant. Strange thing this year is I have the yellow milkweed in one of my beds and I've never grown it before and as far as I know none of my neighbors have any of it so who knows. Oh and on a brighter note I have a visit from my 1st monarch of the year. YEAH!

Jessica, if the milkweed wilts, you'll have to bring in fresh. That's why I started putting the stalks in vases--I have a limited supply. When you cut the top off a stalk, within a month it will put out new growth.

Once the caterpillar (the size of the one in the picture) leaves the milkweed all it wants is to find a good solid place to form it's chrysalis. I saw pictures in a magazine of a family that had a shelf of quart canning jars--one caterpillar each. The downside is that they had to replace the milkweed and empty the droppings every day. For a lid they used a coffee filter or paper towel held in place with canning rings. The coffee filter seemed like a great idea because it would give the cats something to attach the chrysalis to.

The caterpillar will crisscross an area many times with threads of silk until there is enough to stick his hind feet in. Then it will turn around, plant it's hind feet and wait for the silk to 'harden'. (about 4-8 hours) Next it releases the front feet and hangs up-side-down in a J shape for another 12 hours or so. You can watch it pulsing it's body as it works to shed it's striped caterpillar skin. Watch for the antenna to shrivel and the skin to change color slightly as it loosens from the body. The actual 'shedding' only takes a few minutes once the skin splits at the bottom of the J (it's shoulders?) The striped skin rolls up the body revealing the green chrysalis--similar to shoving the sleeve of a sweater up your arm.

It is very vulnerable so caution the kids not to touch for at least 12 hours until the skin hardens.

Once the butterfly emerges it will hang for several hours. When it starts opening and closing it's wings it's getting ready for a test flight. The first flight is usually short. They're usually quite tame and happy to sit on a finger or hang on your shirt so the kids get a chance to see them up close. They'll fly to a window and are quite easy to catch--just fold your hands over it and give it a finger to roost on until you carry it outside.

Their tongue looks like the curled up party favors that you blow into to make straight. It's basically a long straw.

We had Esmeralda who emerged with a bad set of wings. My boys had so much fun watching her suck a drop of honey off their finger. Any kind of juice will work or hummingbird nectar.

When I first started, we never saw caterpillars until the end of August. We were still collecting in late September and sometimes, by the time the butterfly emerged, it was cold outside. Butterflies can't fly below 55 degrees so they had to stay inside & wait for a sunny day. We'd feed them honey or sugar water & bring in Goldenrod.

Hoehum, Thanks for all the detailed information. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Jessica, You might also enjoy gardenweb's Butterfly forum.