Monarch caterpillars

On my 3rd year wintersown A. tuberosa.

Karen

Congratulations! and it's really pretty early for the monarchs! That's great!

Do you have more Asclepias for them? My asclepias are barely out of the ground.

Thumbs Up to you, Karen! It is early for Monarchs in Ohio I would think. I saw my first one on April 2nd but my Asclepias wasn't ready. :(

This is the first time I have seen the cats. The plants are wintersown, now starting their 3rd year.

I thought this might be early. Does anyone else in Ohio have them yet? I never see monarch until later in the summer.

I have 3 plants. Two of those have cats- I saw 8 on one plant and just a couple on another plant. Will they have enough to eat? The third plant is pretty far from this one.

Karen

Karen,

Here's the month to month graph on Monarchs in Ohio. Surely yours must be some of the first cats!

http://www.ohiolepidopterists.org/bflymonitoring/species/monarch.htm

I wonder if any of the garden centers around here have Milkweed ready for sale. Mine are not much more than a few inches out of the ground right now or I'd some some leaves over to you! Sounds like you will need more MW for your brood!

This message was edited May 18, 2008 7:49 AM

This is so interesting. You've got them so early probably because you had A. tuberosa ready where they were able to find it. All of my tropical mw is a little slower.
This just goes to show us that we shouldn't assume they come later when our Milkweed is ready. We need to get our milkweed up and ready by April at least in my area.

T. I did not know there was a tracking site. I'm going to take a look see right now.

I'm going out to the butterfly meadow today to check on how their milkweeds are growing. I think they are mainly 'encarnata' and 'syricia (?)' out in the field.

I read on the monarch watch site somewhere that planting three kinds of MW are recommended to extend the bloom time, but I don't know of one that is really greened up and ready in May (at least around here). Have to check that out... Maybe that 'honeyvine'...?

I have 'tuberosa', 'curassavica' and 'encarnata'...

You're sure to find the A. incarnata (swamp) and A. syricia (common) growing in the meadow if it's been warm enough for it to emerge. Click on Lindawalkabout's picture of the common milkweed she has growing in her area. This is a picture of it growing in the wild. Prudy blooms when it's blooming but not so garden worthy at 6'+ tall with underground runners and huge seed heads exploding.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=4468218

Thanks for the link.

We do have that one in the meadow. I just don't know if it's up now....

Thanks for that migration map, tabasco. Interesting, these guys are very early ones I guess.

They're still there, and a lot bigger than they were yesterday.

Karen

And I guess the only thing in their favor as far as a food source is that this is the 3rd year for these plants- should be their "leap" year.

Karen

kcrna-- one more thing about milkweeds, (and I'm not sure it's the tuberosas, but curassavica for sure).

They are easy to start from cuttings. I just pruned off a couple of my encarnata stems and stuck them into the soil last week and it looks like they are doing just fine making new plants.

FYI for anyone interested in starting milkweeds by cuttings, here's a picture lesson I found helpful:

http://www.butterfliesetc.com/aamilkweedpropagation.php?PHPSESSID=e7e7a98c68c7fd9839a246d8b0bbbc01

I'm going to do more tomorrow.

Interesting. I've not done much with cuttings, but it did work very well for impatiens and petunias and a few simple ones I tried. Usually all my beds are stuffed with wintersown things, not a lot of room left over.

I buried a stem of my hydrangea last fall to start another, though I have no idea why. I have absolutely no room left for anything that big. (Just because I know I can?) I told my friend she could have it. It's probably ready to divide now.

Karen

I know what you mean. I'm basically out of room too. But I need more MW for my butterflies this summer...I think just three of my incarnatas came back.

I do have some Asclepias seedlings emerging, but they may not grow quickly enough! I'm expecting a bumper crop of butterflies this summer!!

It is hard to resist doing cuttings or more WS stuff just to see if you can. I try to do stuff I wouldn't mind having anyway just in case it does make it. Some of the stuff I really wanted didn't make it for WS this year but there is always next year to try again. I tried Bananas and Passifloras this year, not WS but I just had to try them. What was I going to do with 40 Musa and 100 Passifloras if all varieties had made it? Just the ones that made it I have about 80 or more to sell or plant in pots for the winter. But it was sure fun trying them and I will probably try more kinds next year. Not all of the losses were from germination, I learned alot about handling seedlings and what works and what doesn't with those baby plants. It's too much fun not to do them, and it keeps us occupied in the winter.

I know what you mean, dylancgc, sowing seeds and propagating is too much fun and a bit of a challenge to keep things interesting through the winter.

And I learned a lot too about timing, especially. It took me a year or so to figure out the best timing for Wintersowing here. And also timing for seedlings started under lights. I started too early starting seeds inside and managing the seedlings was a headache. Next time I will compress the timeline.

I really like the wintersowing and trying plants I never would have purchased or even find in the nurseries. And a good learning experience over all.