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'm raising about 50 Monarchs this year, and because I don't have enough of any one species of Asclepias to feed all of them, I am offering them cuttings of 2 or 3 species when they are small (A. incarnata, A. syriaca, or A. curassavica) and eventually they seems to adapt and eat all of them. A. tuberosa is the least favorite. I tried feeding some to the larger cats, but the leaves were pretty drought stricken and not even the hungry 5th instar cats ate much. Do you have any other type of milkweed? If that's all you have and you are trying to transition the baby cats, then I would pick the smallest and most tender leaves possible.

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

Those little butterflies know a good thing when they see it. It's nice to know that your hard gardening work is paying off and the butterflies recognize that! I can only sit here in sheer envy of your butterfly bounty. The last monarch I tagged here in CT was the first of Nov. and I saw another one on the fifth, but it was way up high flying to the South West. I will have to be patient...I have another 5 months until I begin checking my 50 or so overwintering BSTs for activity. Connecticut has such a long, cold butterflyless winter... Maryann