I live in a suburb of San Diego and we have had frost warnings the last few nights so my milkweeds that are covered with cats are snuggled up on our patio in the warmest corner surrounded by Christmas deer and other Christmas lights! I pulled the deer out of our front yard and they work perfectly to stand next to the pots. We had a frost warning last night but I didn't get up early enough to see if it frosted. The computer says the low was only 45 though. I'm in zone 10a but in a valley so we get frost. I'm hoping that I can keep these guys going all winter. I'm only a few miles from a site in San Diego that was an overwintering site for years but has not seen many recently. We live about 4-5 miles inland from San Diego Bay. The patio has stucco walls that heat up during the day so it is warm even on cold days.

I want to find out more about the overwintering - do the same butterflies make it all winter or do they cycle?

The cats here have eaten almost all of the leaves and seed pods off the plants so I got some new plants this week. I was trying to just let nature take its course.....but couldn't let the frost get them and now that there are so many eating so much had to get more plants. The cost adds up--large ones are $20. I got some smaller ones for $8 that would be great if they had a chance to grow. I need to get some seeds planted. I really didn't think I would still have cats now, and thought I would have time to get them going.

I'm not complaining though. It was all worth it last weekend when I was sitting in my yard (picking aphids of the milkweeds) and a monarch came fluttering by and was laying more eggs and getting nectar from the flowers! The beauty of it brought tears to my eyes. The week before we had just had torrential rainfall and flooding and here was a monarch as soon as the sun was out! So amazing!

This fits:

New milkweed plants: $45

Pots for plants: $30

Feeling that you get from sitting in your yard watching a monarch fly around: priceless!