Most of my chionodoxa have not bloomed yet, although there is a small clump of them that bloomed a couple weeks ago(and got frozen) in a west facing bed. Some of my larger daffs also have already bloomed, but most have not. Generally chionodoxa bloom for me after the Iris reticulata, crocus, miniature daffodils, & scilla siberica have bloomed & when the anemone blanda are still blooming but past their peak, but they bloom pretty consistently along with Ipheon, Fritillaria meleagris and SOME of my larger daffodils. The chionodoxa have spread well and make good sized patches within a few years. You may have to experiment with varieties of daffs and other bulbs to find what works best for you. I have no idea what varieties of daffs (they are long trumpets) that bloom with mine as I bought a mixed package. Hope this helps you a little. Leslie

Minrose, thanks for posting! I was wondering what it could be???? I am just now seeing more PLs in my gardens since this spring but have never raised any either! I had a lot of AL cats on a couple of native weeds that grew in my BF garden that had volunteered & then when they had eaten all of the "weeds", they moved to a small Silver Brocade artemesia I had but I think it is gone now...it didn't like our Texas summer heat! I didn't bring the AL cats in because I didn't have any more food for them! I would love to raise PLs but I haven't found a good host plant so far! I currently have a nice cardoon growing but so far it has been ignored. What host plants are in your area??? Again, glad it eclosed for you! Take care, Lila

Ruth, I don't know for sure whether these Monarchs could lay eggs yet this season or not. I do know that I've raised Monarchs that didn't eclose until late September or even early October. Who knows whether those had time to make it all the way to Mexico? Nature often seems wasteful, but I think almost all creatures try to stretch the ends of each season in order to take advantage of the variability that occurs from year to year. Just as the first Robin arrives when the ground is still frozen, the last Monarch leaves for Mexico far later than seems safe. But, they may have gotten an entire extra generation in? Who knows? Martha

Great question, Linda. It is true, but has more to do with the temperatures. Monarchs can not fly at temps below 55 degrees, and they can not live for long at temps below freezing. Sandy gave you a great resource for your newsletter at Monarchwatch.org. You will find a wealth of reliable information on their website. There is a small window of opportunity for them to have the best chance to migrate to Mexico, and succeed. Here's some info. Fall migration http://monarchwatch.org/tagmig/index.htm Peak migration Find your latitude, and plug it into here. http://monarchwatch.org/tagmig/peak.html This gives you a 12 day leeway, as it is only an estimate. This gives you a rough estimate as to when they should be migrating in your area. Remember that there may be some older females full of eggs, that may be unable to make the journey. They will continue to live out their life in your yard, happily laying eggs everywhere until they die. The eggs will hatch, and the caterpillars will eat, but they will probably develope slower, because your temperatures have cooled off, and their metabolism has gotten slower. They may or may not make it to a chrys., or emerge and not be able to fly if your temps are below 60 during the day, and close to freezing at night. I have had Monarchs in November before when we've had really nice weather in the fall, but they lived out their life in my garden, and did not try to migrate. When do you usally have your first hard freeze? With all of your nectar sources gone, even if they were protected enough to survive the freeze, they would not have food to survive. Hope that helped to answer your question. :) Do research the Monarch website to find lots of information.