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Butterfly Garden

Alright it has begun

12 years ago

I saw my first three Monarchs yesterday and today I found 13 Monarch eggs, I am so excited. Alot of the milkweed is not very big, I will have to do alot of looking around for some more milkweed to feed them but I have a few days to look, the eggs look like they were just laid today.

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Comments (12)

Tony G
12 years ago
nice minrose! I found a bunch yesterday (in Bloomington) and when I took the dog on a walk today there were TONS on the wild milkweed by the park we walked by. This early butterfly season is amazing! Good luck with your new babies, Tony
MissSherry
12 years ago
Congrats, Tony! You're in the same situation I was in when my spring Moma monarch left eggs - not enough milkweed!

Good luck finding more!

Sherry
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minrose
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks Sherry and Tony,
I plan on taking a walk around our whole yard and probably go driving around to my favorite milkweed spots to see how the milkweed is coming along there. I just might end up with some more eggs!
I am excited to have Monarchs eclose for me near the end of May! In 2008 my first Monarch to eclose was July 8,in 2009 it was June 27, 2010 my first was June 17 and in 2011, on June 25, was my first Monarch to eclose, so they are quite s bit earlier!

MaryAnn aka Minrose
butterflymomok
12 years ago
Congrats to all you northerners! I think we will see a rebound in population as there is time for another generation this year. Each additional generation should bolster the numbers. This could well be the year of the Monarchs.
minrose
Original Author
12 years ago
That would be so great! I found 5 more Monarch eggs but still not too much milkweed. I did drive around our gravel roads near our farm and did not see too much, bummer. When it stops raining at our farm, I plan on taking a walk around our whole 12 acres to see how much milkweed I can find. One way or another I am going to feed my catepillars milkweed when they hatch.

MaryAnn
Tony G
12 years ago
Minrose, there are three things I do so that a milkweed shortage isn't a problem if monarchs come early:

1. My common is planted on the south side of the house where it gets lots of sun and little wind. Some of my stalks are already between 1-2 ft tall.

2. I pot two tropical milkweed every year and bring them inside for the winter. tropical amazingly flowers all winter long

3. I take cuttings from the tropical at the beginning of march and put them in water. Cuttings grow much faster than seeds after they're planted and the stems are thick so they won't be easily broken by wind or careless kids/pets

BTW- tropical will also give you later monarchs as it stays viable longer than our native milkweeds

When I went by the park milkweed I was also shocked to see their milkweed was just as big as mine! I think it's prairie milkweed though....but the section I walked by also gets lots of afternoon sun. I think all this rain is helping too...Bye Bye Drought!
minrose
Original Author
12 years ago
Tony,
thanks for all the tips, all I have for milkweed, is the common milkweed and butterfly weed, oh I do have a cinderalla incarnate milkweed that gets very big but I have never seen any Monarch eggs on it, wonder why? I see lots of flies on it in previous years, could that be why? My Dh thinks I should get rid of the Cinderalla one as it attracts flies and because I have never seen any eggs on it. I was thinking though, if I wash the leaves before feeding them to the catepillars, that is should be okay, you think? Then I would like to keep it, as a backup for feeding, as it does get quite big.
I am planning to make a new milkweed bed, as I saved alot of milkweed seeds last fall but that won't help me now. I am up to 22 Monarch eggs now.
Where did you get your tropical milkweed? That sounds like a good thing to do?!
Tony G
12 years ago
good morning MaryAnn,

I'm not familiar with the "cinderella" cultivar of swamp. I have regular swamp and even in it's first year (non-flowering) last year, it got eggs.

If you want some cuttings that will bloom this year, you might try ordering from this company...then you can collect seeds each fall :) They also have the 'silky gold' cultivar that has all yellow flowers. Hope this helps, Tony

Here is a link that might be useful: Tropical milkweed cuttings
minrose
Original Author
12 years ago
Tony,
thank you, I just might have to order some, appreciate your help. I did save some seeds from my common milkweed and just today I planted seeds in peat pots, hopefully they will come up.
Tony G
12 years ago
Do you pot common milkweed? It doesn't grow very fast in year one, does it?

After 6 inches of rain the past few days my common milkweed is getting BIG! What I like about common is that the leaves are so big they can sustain a lot of munching monarchs.

I'm trying swan milkweed this year too...can't wait to see what those look like. The seedlings survived the monsoon so I hope to see some serious growth this week! Have a good one, Tony
minrose
Original Author
12 years ago
Yes, I potted common milkweed, never have before so not sure how it will do. I know what you mean about the nice big leaves, I like that for feeding the cats.
Lets see, I have 10 butterweed plants plus 2 more to plant. Two of my butterfly weed is getting a nice size, about 8 inches but the leaves are small. My one Cinderalla milkweed is about 10 inches, it has medium size leaves. I think I will rinse these leaves off and try feeding them to some of my catepillars. I double checked in my garden notebook, it is milkweed so... I plan on taking the gravel road home after work, that I found my first monarch eggs for this year, to see if I can get some fresh milkweed leaves. Some of the eggs should be hatching soon. I am up to 30 eggs!
MaryAnn
Tony G
11 years ago
Sounds like you are ready! I actually SAW my first monarch today. Mama number two came and left another hefty egg deposit. This could possibly be one of our best years EVER for monarchs with this extra early generation.

Good luck with your babies, Tony

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