Yes, That is the plant. The cats on the dill are not Monarch's. Monarchs have black yellow and green stripes, but no dots. They will only eat Milk Weed. Each summer in Michigan,our grand daughters and I raise a couple of monarchs in a screened covered jar. BUT we also have gobs of wild milkweed. Seems as if I am the only one in our park that has this plant, but we noticed tonight that three of the cats have started their next phase, so the new plant should be food enough for the other three.I have hopes that my plants will grow new leaves, and maybe a new family of monarchs..

My eyes glaze over when I try to read how to get plants to grow from seed... I just don't have the patience or skill :( After several failed attempts to get orange butterfly weed to grow from a packet of seed, a neighbor gave me some of her seed pods. I stuffed the seeds under the mulch all over in the area I where I wanted it to grow, and finally got ONE plant to grow a couple of years ago! It's on a berm in the middle of our backyard lawn where we had 2 trees that died (only to replace them and have the replacements die). Rather than plant more trees there, I'm trying to turn the berm into a butterfly garden. Last year was the first year my little butterfly weed flowered, and this year it's back and the blooms are opening up now. I found babies in a few spots around the yard this spring, and successfully transplanted one and have a second transplant on life support-- the top died back but I keep watering the roots. I just found 4 more tiny baby butterfly weeds growing in a patch of ground cover near the parent plant, but fear they're too small to transplant at this point so I may need to wait until next spring. I want to add some milkweed to this area as soon as I find some. The swamp milkweed pictures are so pretty! Here's my only mature butterfly weed (surrounded by Mexican feather grass), and the bitty babies I'm hoping to transplant next spring...

I have found the best thing to do is leave the Oleander aphids alone, and as they increase they will attract the predators that feed on them. Lady beetles, lacewings, and small parasitic flies and wasps. I will carefully spray any aphids off with the hose if they are on any of my rarer milkweeds that are still. small and not established are still small and not yet established. It's too much work and time to constantly be hosing off all your milkweeds, and you can end up damaging Monarch eggs or little caterpillars in the process. It's hard to see so many aphids on a plant, and not take action, but the natural predators will eventually come and clean out the aphids quickly. Most milkweeds have tubers that store energy, and they have evolved to be able to withstand a lot of predation from Monarch caterpillars, so it's doubtful the could kill a milkweed, except perhaps a very young seedling. Oleander aphids do not turn into red and black milkweed beetles, that's absurd. Hosing them off is reducing the food source of the predators. By leaving them, you help the predator populations, which will mean more predators and less aphids in the future. .

I just came across the gay butterfly weed searching pictures online. I am almost positive I bought just the orange milkweed but I guess its possible it was mislabeled. Just weird he or went from orange to part yellow what seems overnight.