CLOSED: Looking for Milkweeds in Piedmont NC

Hello!

The heat took a toll on my MWs and afraid I will not have enough to feed the cats.

I am looking for reliable sources of MW and am willing to go to great lengths! :)

Your thoughts/ideas/leads are appreciated!

~Amanda in Greensboro

Cats eat mlikweed? Am I missing something here? Are you looking for pods or plants?
Rose

Rose,

She meant caterpillars... the Monarch caterpillars only eat Milkweed leaves. :)

Are you looking for swamp milkweed?

everwilde farms sells all kinds of milkweed seeds, reasonably piced.

Thanks everybody. For clarification - I was looking for foliage from living plants to feed to larvae of the Monarch butterfly.

I have some leads on local sources - Have a good night. :D

I have milk weeds growning all around. They are about a foot tall. I can dig you as many as I can.
Kathy

Thanks, Kathy - I will keep that in mind if it comes to that. The cupboard is not yet bare. ;)

Hope we don't get there, either! But these things can EAT!!! I fee like my whole day is spent catering to them. But good for the soul, i suppose. Have a good night.

A.

tell us more about this hobby. Do you want plant cuttings vs. entire plant? I'm interested. I can send whatever.

Kathy

Here is a thread I started in the Hummingbird and Butterfly forum:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1219772/

There is quite a "movement" in the last several years to grow "host" plants for butterflies to lay their eggs on so that when the eggs hatch the caterpillars will eat your plants. :D

Sounds contrary to public policy, doesn't it?! There are hundreds of species of milkweed, some are well known and more popular than others - butterfly weed (A. tuberosa) swamp milkweed (A. incarnata) and tropical milkweed/bloodflower (A. curassavica) seem to be the most popular.

This year has been a slow/bad year for all kinds of butterflies due to the cold wet spring and the severe weather we've experienced. Across the country, from FL to TX right up to Canada, people have remarked that they haven't seen a single monarch, or a single black swallowtail, etc., which are very common and abundant in summer. I typically don't get monarchs till August, but they were late and not very many (so far). On the other hand, a friend who lives about an hour away in NC has so many she's afraid she will run out of milkweed (MW) to feed the cats (caterpillars). So I have started looking for back up sources of "feed" in case one or both of us get hit by swarms of monarchs. They do continue (or should) thru October as they head south, but this last batch of caterpillars are the ones that migrate south to Mexico.

I garden for wildlife. I guess it might sound strange, but then again maybe not. ;)

A.

p.s. a picture from last night of 3 very fat monarch caterpillars.

I had 3 cats cocoon in my yard that we saw. I dont know that they ever hatched - the neighbor kids were messing with them and then they were no where to be found :( Next year I will be diligent about keeping the kids away!! Grr.
They did manage to eat all the leaves on my butterfly weed before they cocooned though. And that was new this year - no blooms yet.

S

S:

Can't remember the statistics, but even if you screw it up big time, a monarch's chance of survival to butterfly stage (and probably many butterfly/moth species) is very low.

Now that numbers are dwindling because of deforestation, insecticides, climate change, and loss of their winter migratory regions in Mexico, it is more important that they survive to this stage. I had some casualties last year that made me re-think my dedication to this exercise this summer, but friends convinced me to keep on.

Maybe you'll think about it for next season. It is a fascinating, enjoyable, and ultimately rewarding experience. Especially if you participate in the "tagging" program. Special sort of non-harmful stickers (?!)(I haven't done this myself yet) is placed on the hindwing. If someone spots or catches or finds your critter, I think they contact you somehow. I've not looked into it too much, but when a but you released in MN is found in MX it's probably pretty exciting.

Thanks for everybody's consideration. Kathy - I will keep you posted if I need you to send stalks of your MW (not roots - you can keep them!) overnight. :D

A.

Glad to do what I can and I LOVE this project. I'm bored with my gardening and ready for another 'garden' hobby so this could be it. I need to learn lots more but I find this so worthy of time and effort. I do have the orange butterfly weed but it's gone for the season. The orange flowers are beautiful but I know nothing about gathering it.

I look forward to reading more tomorrow on this topic. I love it so A. send me links to more 101 info
Kathy

Kathy that's so great. :)

Here's what I found a couple of years ago that made me start planning a monarch habitat:

http://www.monarchwatch.org/

Of course, the monarch is not the only butterfly/caterpillars you may attract. As you learn more, you will discover that other butterflies host on different types of plants. For instance, the black swallowtail hosts on most plants in the carrot family like queen anne's lace, parsley, dill, fennel and rue.

The orange milkweed (A. tuberosa) actually does not seem to yield as many (if any!) caterpillars as the swamp milkweed. It seems to be the magnet for egg-laying monarchs and where most of my caterpillars are found. Some of the cats show a preference for the tropical milkweed (A. curassavica) I think because the leaves are long and tender and yummy looking green. At this time of year I think that's important because my swamp milkweed looks like hell. :/

Take a look at the hummingbird and butterfly forum here and read thru some threads. Here's a sticky on how to raise butterflies and moths:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/744103/

I'll be happy to help you on your way. :)

In the meantime, I found 1 more cat yesterday on my swamp milkweed and brought it in. It's the same stage/size as the rest so I guess they're all from the same butterfly. Most of them have stopped eating and are getting ready to spin their chrysalis. They hang upside down in a "J" form and then before you know it they have disappeared and been replaced by this gorgeous jewel.

When they are ready to emerge the green/gold chrysalis turns black and you can see the butterfly inside:

And then they emerge . ...

and are ready to head south!

Here's one more link for Kathy to a site that lists host plants for multiple butterflies.

http://www.butterflygardeningandconservation.com/plant/host.php

Just getting time to be on DG and I can't wait to read and learn! Thanks so much.....be back after reading up on this project.

I love it.
Kathy

Amanda,
TY for the photos. I agree with you about the cats. Same problems here. I keep curravassica because so many different butterflies like it, and had Monarchs in August too, as you mentioned.
Also Queens, and several others. I even had a giant swallowtail cat on my young sapote, and although it ate it bare, the cat and resulting butterfly were amazing! (I knew the leaves of the tree would grow back, so nothing lost)
I can't wait to hear about more of your cats and butterflies :)
edit: spelling

This message was edited Jan 1, 2012 7:01 AM