Cathy, it should be fine for the FOs if they are found in your location. At the very least, it is a good nectar plant! Linda, I am starting to see tiny green growth at the very bottom of my senna hebecarpa (wild senna). Hopefully, the false nettle will follow. It's very hardy, so just may take some time coming up. I have those tall stems still standing in my yard from the senna alata I grew last year, and I am going to leave them. They look like black bamboo stakes. So, I'm going to use them for some of my vining plants. They are very solidly set in the ground so should be able to handle a good sized, even a heavy, vining plant. I just have to plant my senna alata seeds in a different location this year. Susan

I think the caterpillars just get wanderlust when they're ready to go into the chrysalis! This is my first year planting for butterflies, so I can't make comparisons. Last year I just had one Monarch wander through during fall migration. This year was much better, and we saw quite a few monarchs here and there in the garden, but never more than one at a time. I didn't see any eggs or babies until last week, when my husband spotted an ELF. After her departure, I counted 42 eggs, and brought in 20 to raise. There is also one giant caterpillar in the yard now, so obviously I missed a previous ELF. Frankly, I had stopped checking the milkweed because it was so heavily infested with aphids I couldn't stand to handle it. I had been hosing it off for quite some time, but I had surgery and couldn't do it and then it was too late. Anyway, I am hoping that this year is better on the East Coast in general. I've been too laid up postop to be able to go to the park and check out the butterfly fields there. Last year was terrible, as most of you know. I learned that 90% of the monarchs overwintering in Mexico come from the Midwest, though. So we do our bit, but you folks in Texas, Oklahoma, and the Great Plains really carry the weight. So I hope you all are doing well. Liz

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.

Hi OKSandy! I thought this too - but it states this on the data sheet: Â Please let us know of lost, redistributed, or damaged tags and return any unused tags with your completed datasheets as soon as possible and preferably before December 1, 2007. Since everything is entered via the datasheets (not computerized...yet) I *think* this would be ok - as long as we notify MW that we do so. :) Sandy