Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Pop Up Hamper for Monarch Caterpillars, 1 by adbjwb

adbjwb wrote:
Amanda, how sad that they struggled! This is my first year to work with them, but it seems to me that the more natural the better -- that perhaps they really need to fly as soon as the wings are dry in order to get the strength they need. It's only a guess. So far, I've been careful to let them go on their own, without my touching them to risk even slight damage to the wings. So far, it is working.

I neglected to cut back several mums in the summer and the lower portions look dead now (while the upper portions are green and filled wtih buds). One caterpillar crossed the patio and made its chrysalis about 6" off the ground on a "dead" mum stem! It eclosed this week and then flew to a Crape Myrtle tree. From there it found the Asclepias and then the 'Pink Delight' Buddleia. They are crazy about that Buddleia! Rain came a couple of hours later but I've had two monarchs flying around the past two days so I think that one made it through the brief storm just fine. I guess they know how to take shelter from the rain.

I have another crystalis in the popup hamper. That one should eclose in a day or two.

The hamper is in the shrub bed and planted within a couple of feet of it is an Asclepia. Late this afternoon a caterpillar left the Asclepias and climbed up the outside of the little hamper! Thankfully, I found it before it cemented and gently placed it inside the hamper. Half an hour later it was upside down at the top. I'm tickled that it recognized a good place -- and I hadn't even painted a sign saying, "Caterpillar House"!!