Monarchs! Thought I saw some a week ago. Yesterday I spotted one for sure and today saw one again flying out of in my yard. No pics yet. But guess what? It left something! I picked up a potted milkweed and found 5 eggs. Just a brief check of most of the milkweeds turned up 27 eggs. Okay, if you're in Texas, in San Antonio area or north of there, get ready! Whee! Haven't had spring Monarch cats in years! Oh, lord, where's my compost and fertilizer? Gotta go get these plants growing quick! Gotta get the cat containers out of storage! Quite a few milkweeds still haven't even shown any signs of life, so it's just a matter of how many I've lost! Others are coming up from the roots only...that really takes time when they're starting over like that. Later, gotta get going!
Yippee! They're HERE!
Go, Linda, go!! I saw my first Monarch on Saturday (it fed from my Alyssum). It makes me want to take time off work and go sit in my yard!! :-)
Carla
I saw 2 yesterday. The first one was flying right for my car windshield so I had to almost stop to let it f l o a t by. :) I love how they float!
I can't believe I didn't start any milkweed early! Duh! I have a pot with some in it but it wouldn't feed many. I've got tons of seeds of who-knows-what coming up now so hopefully some of it is milkweed.
Glad to hear it. I haven't seen any in my yard but I did find several late instar monarch caterpillars on the milkweed...so they must be around :o)
~ Cat
Oh boy! I just looked in the cage on my porch to see how all the Monarch cats I am babysitting from school are doing. Well ....... they aren't cats anymore! I counted 25 chrysalises and 6 cats in a J. I had moved 3 older chrysalises to the nursery cage and just looked and one Monarch has already emerged. And a second chrysalis is really dark, so I expect to see another butterfly before today ends.
I'm with you Paige. I don't think I will have enough Milkweed leaves since I cut them back a month ago and they are still just short bushy plants. All it takes is ONE Monarch butterfly laying eggs on the plants and the next thing ya know ...... ALL my milkweed will be down to nubby stalks and branches! LOL!
This message was edited Mar 29, 2007 2:25 PM
My milkweeds are certainly getting enough rain to grow, but sunlight has been a little lacking. We've probably had at least 7 inches of rain this month so far...and it's pouring now!. Oh, the first milkweed I picked up the other day is one I promised to give someone later on. Hmm, I wonder if she wants some caterpillars?
I hear ya on the lack of sunshine and pouring rain. I've been trying to harden off plants but now they're all becoming porch and house plants. They will still have to go thru a phase to adjust to our sun, when it comes back.
I think we all need to remember to either keep some milkweed set aside in pots or start more in the summer. Some of us will run out and some of us will need more to share with those that run out. lol
I'm just proud of myself for actually planning ahead with the fennel and dill this year. I'm going to try to keep some started through the season so I don't run out of it.
I found 11 M. cats on my little tiny mws today. Sorry I'm double posting but I don't know if everyone reads every thread.
I kept a lot of my mw from last year in the same pots and put them close to the house. They still went dormant and are leafing out but slowly. It seems the ones in the ground have bigger and healthier leaves than the ones in the post. I'm finding eggs all over the place. The weird thing is I've only seen a couple of Monarchs, they must oviposit and run....things to do, places to go.
I saw some nice mw plants at this nursery called Houston Garden Center, so I'll have to get some this weekend.
My Parsely stayed green all winter and had those dreaded assassin nymphs in them. I haven't seen any lately, but I've always had too many of those bugs.
Becky, you lucked out...they went to chrysalis so quickly.
The way I look at is....if I had an acre of mw, would it be enough....no....the more plants, the more cats. We just have to do the best we can.....even if it means, whining and begging for mw from strangers lol
Good idea, Paige! We can never have enough host plants can we? I have heard that you can refridgerate Milkweed leaves in a baggie. If they are kept cold they will stay fresh longer. Which I have actually done on extreme circumstances. Just fed the cats leaves instead of a whole plant. I wonder if any other host plant leaves could be chilled the same way?
The rain came here today and has been rainy and cloudy all day. Tomorrow is supposed to be the same. I was hoping to get out in the garden to finish up all that I still have to do before I have to go back to work on Monday. Sunday is forecast to be nice here. And a few degrees cooler, which is good because it's been like early summer here lately. Quite warm! And this is still March. Makes me afraid of how hot it's going to be this summer!!! (Whew, wiping the sweat from my brow.)
Becky, when Paige sent me the mw I so desperately needed last year, she sent me tons and I put it in the fridge, it stayed nice for a long time. Don't freeze it, that didn't work, it mushed up.
Rox - When I got most of the cats from the school, they were pretty big which is why we hardly had any mw leaves left on the plants. I still have lots of mw left growing in the yard. All short and bushy. And I can concur with you about the health of mw in pots vs. ground. I am thinking of taking all of my plants in pots and repotting them in new soil and cutting back the plant roots a little. I need to keep the ones I have in pots for the cage. But they aren't looking so great currently either.
That's kind of funny that you have small bushy plants like me and all kinds of cat eggs! Murphy's Law! Probably the reason why is that there may not be much more mw around close-by and the Monarch butterflies know it. Do you have many nectar plants blooming currently. If not, that might be why they are laying eggs and flying off. I find that mine linger in my yard if I have blooming nectar plants for them as well as host plants.
You are right .... no matter the amount of land with mw on it, it would probably STILL not be enough! Which makes me wonder about South America. Do they have that many mw plants growing in the wild there that the butterflies use when they fly there? Or do they nectar off of some other type of plants?
I bet they feed off of other plants, but who knows? Maybe the mw grows wild there, some of it has tap roots, so could handle drought. They seem like tough plants.
My mw is just started to get buds, non have bloomed yet. I have some flowering plants, dianthus, Alyssum, Irises, Corepsis, but none that I've seen them nectar on. I bet it's hard for them to find a lot of mw in the city, that's why we have so many eggs on our little plants. That's sad isn't it?
Have you ever seen mw put in by a landscaper?
Rox - Nope! Unless of course it was a homeowner that requested a butterfly garden. But most folks don't know about butterflies when they buy a home here. Though ..... the garden centers here sell it and can't seem to keep it in stock. Nor can they seem to keep in stock hummer plants. High demand for them! :-) :-) So apparently a lot of homeowners are discovering butterfly and hummingbird gardening! There are a LOT of serious gardeners in my area. I guess because the temps are so mild here, quite a few retirees move here for the weather because they enjoy year-round gardening. Bird feeders and bird seed also fly off the shelves here. (No pun intended!) And the parking lot at my local HD are always full near the garden center area.
I would bet that South America probably has some native nectar plants that we don't have here in the USA. Why else would they flock there if there was no food source? Though, with progress and development going on there, that may be changing Monarch habitats as well.
I am sure in your area, very few people living in the city have butterfly gardens or plants in their yards. So they all come visit your garden and leave you the future generations of butterflies! :-)
Monarchs go to South America?