I can't believe my eyes! There is a pretty big Monarch caterpillar in my yard already! I have never seen them before July! This seems very strange to me. I haven't seen a Monarch butterfly yet.
I can't believe it!
Hehehe!!
'Must be an extra cold tolerant individual. :)
Congratulations, and aren't surprises wonderful?
Sherry
Okay, that tells me why I haven't gotten those lovelies down South to help eat my gallions milkweeds I planted for them this spring. lol. Congrats!
Meredith,
We brought four monarch catepillars into the house last weekend to raise. This was the first time that I have every raised a "wild" catepillars. Last year we bought a kit with painted lady catepillars and raised them.
I'm wondering if we may have made a mistake. We have plenty of milkweed so that wasn't a problem, but I didn't put water in until several days had passed. The reason why I didn't do that was with the painted lady catepillars, the kit includes some type of food, and water is not needed. It didn't occur to me that I should have water until a few days had passed. We put the monarchs in the cage from last year's kit.
Three of them are in chrysalis, and one looks like he's going to join them - he's hanging in a "J" formation. Hopefully, we'll have at least three monarchs from this. If we have done the right thing, then we'll try it again. Right now, there aren't any monarchs around.
Merideth, what milkweed was that on?
Penne, You should be okay, I think they only need the plants.
Need to go scout the wild milkweed....none of my milkweed seedlings made it. I will have to try again next year!
This message was edited Jun 8, 2009 3:11 PM
Nanny, some of my stray Mexican milkweed are just now sprouting. They scattered all over the places. Some fell on my other container garden, which was brought indoor, they just now sprouted to be a few inches tall. I just purchased a new 'wild' milkweek (our native which bloom bright orange), and another variety which is called purple milkweed this season. I'll see how they do here in my garden. I'm still looking out for Monarches and Queens.
I'm just glad I can share my news with people that won't think I 'm crazy. (My son and husband think I am.) I had a ragged monarch in my garden on April 30th. I noticed it laying eggs on the tiny sprigs of asclepias in my garden. I panicked, thinking they would hatch before there were any leaves. Luckily we had lots of rain so the plants really sprouted. Plus, we had cold weather the beginning of May which I think slowed the hatching of the caterpillars. Anyway, I had an aquarium ready for the cats because I lost many last year to birds thinking they would be a good meal. When the cats were about 1/2 inch long I put them in the aquarium. I had knocked the bottom out of it so it rain got in it would drain right into the mulch. To make a long story short, I ended up with so many caterpillars that I purchased two more aquariums. I now have 12 chrysalises in one aquarium, 7 in another, and my last 6 caterpillars became chrysalises over the weekend. The first ones of the 12 should be emerging any day now. It has been so interesting to watch them and I learned to keep the containers dry and poop free.
Oh, I had contacted a butterfly expert because I have never had a monarch or any butterfly that early here in PA. He said that it was the first ones of the second generation migrating from Mexico. He said since my asclepias did have some leaves she must have sought them out since most milkweed isn't even growing at that time.
Thanks for the congrats everyone!
Mrs. Ed I believe it is Asclepias syriaca. It grows like crazy all around here. I have it popping up in my front border including the cracks in the walkway! I have tried to get rid of it from that area because my dh complains about it. They get very big so it's not like they just blend in with my other plants. I have a big garden that's about 30 ft wide and 15 ft deep that milkweed would be allowed to do as it pleases but they choose to grow out ofmy walkway! lol I prefer the A. tuberosa, A. incarnata and A. currasavica. I have been trying to get some A. purpurascens going for the last three years. It is the tirckest one to get going for me.
I know a lot of you are used to getting Monarchs this time of year but it just seems so odd to me. Then today I was talking to a first grader on my bus about his butterfly head band he was wearing and he told me how his class recently raised Monarchs and released them. Now I am thinking that perhaps this cat is their off spring. The school is only a 15 minute walk from here and if there were a more direct route probably closer. I saw a BST laying eggs a couple weeks ago and have only found one tiny cat hatched so far. This Monarch cat is 2" long already!
Ah, so good old common milkweed. Yah, that one spreads by runners. I have a few of those plants and looks like it and the trumpet vine are trying to mess with the rhubarb!
Last year I found cats on the common milkweed as well as the butterfly weed. Might have to do something about that.
I ordered a bunch of different milkweed seeds from georgiavines.com and had -0- germination with them. :( Had good germination with my own a. tuberosa and a. incarnata though, as well as some a. tuberosa 'Gay Butterflies' from a DGer.
That is interesting about the kids. could be the case!
Isn't it amazing how far one runner will go between plants! The first year I lived here they were growing in the backyard. I wanted to save them from my dh's mower and was digging the runners up to try and not kill them.The runners were at least 20 ft long on some! After all that, the plants died off in their pots that I had lined up along the back of my house (while waiting for a spot to plant them.)
The funny thing is the little pieces of roots that managed their way down through the drainage holes has since created new plants in that area! This area is the hardest spot for anything to grow because it only gets late afternoon sun. These milkweeds are good for difficult spots - that's for sure. : )
yah, those runners getcha! That's why the farmers are so frustrated with them. I think I'm going to have to think about a huge sunken pot or something. I'll probably need to move the rhubarb since the trumpet vine needs to be mowed down. Darn. Rhubarb hates to be moved and it's just now recovering from being planted there. I have a nice new spot for it though.
Here are my a. tuberosa and a. tuberosa "gay butterflies" seedlings. LOL.
They are looking good! I was out looking around and keeping my fingers crossed for some 2 year old incarnata plants I recently transplanted. I had about 7 seedlings in this bed last year plus a large plant that I transplanted and none of them made it! They appeared to be attacked by a leaf disease and wilted away last summer. Hopefully this second attempt is more successful. The spot they were in has been claimed my my Dh & Dss as a spot to ride their four wheelers out to the woods, plus it is a very dry spot. So I figured it was worth the chance. If they don't make it I am going to have to find somewhere local that sells decent sized plants because I love the Swap Milkweeds the most - looks and behavior wise. The Monarchs seem to favor those wild ones for egg laying though!
This message was edited Jun 10, 2009 1:08 PM
here's my swamp milkweed from winter sowing. can't believe how big they are. I'm worried because they are not in a wet place and so I'll have to just water for individual needs. Thought about trying to put it in the pond too.
Four wheelers, bah humbug! LOL.
Ooooo....I am going to have to WS more next year since none of mine survived. :(
Nanny, go ahead and sow some NOW, it's never too late to sow fast growing perennials such as MW.
Mrs Ed. Swamp milkweed? Is that the same as the tuberosa also known as Mexican MW?
Now, I've seen the wild growing kind of milkweed around here along roadways, and thickets. They're bright orange, and uniform orange (not bi-color as in Mexican Milkweed) and I've been wanting to stop and dig up some, but I think I wait a while 'til they make seeds and come by and collect seeds, instead of attempting to transplant wild growing plants under the heat of the South early-summer. It's 90'ish or feels like it out there already.
Swamp milkweed is usually pinkish purple in color and much taller than the a. tuberosa that you are talking about. My a. tuberosa butterfly weed is solid orange. it's similar to the mexican (tropical) but is zone hardy up here. I have seeds if you want (of both)… I don't expect any of these to bloom this year.
Butterfly Weed
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/73/
Swamp Milkweed
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/539/
Can't hurt I guess...
i figure I'll at least have lots of food even though they aren't blooming. I'd say plant them! I know you left them in the fridge long enough. LOL!
HA!!! Funny woman you!!!
LOL, wow Mrs_Ed. I guess I don't have any of the milkweeds that you've. Here is mine, and I thought that this one I have is the Mexican MW:
See it has two tone, orange and yellow.
Looks like the A. curassavica to me, which some call Mexican Milkweed. I call it Scarlet Milkweed I grow a flat of those every year for the Monarchs - it is tender here.
Yah, looks like A. curasavica to me too, Merideth. I tried to grow it twice already and no luck. I'm going to give it one more try directly into a pot. I love how pretty it is.
Mrs. Ed I have to start mine indoors, or they wouldn't make it to seed - when you say you had no luck do you mean with germination? I have found a heat mat helps tremendously. They are very erratic to germinate, so I sow them very thickly and snip off the later germinators.
ah. I started one batch indoors. I got three seedlings which later died (i SUCK an starting indoors). Then when it got warmer I started in a tray outside. Nothing.
So I thought maybe I'd direct sow in a pot now that it is hot.
Hmm that's too bad. I had really good germination with the ones I started this year. However I sprinkled 100's of seeds over a flat of 72 cells. I wish you good luck with getting them going in the pot. Last year I slacked off with them because I had started way too many things. They didn't get planted out until July and they had been ready to plant way before that. They don't like getting to root bound - it makes them think they don't need to grow anymore. They didn't die but they just sat in the garden looking the same for at least a month. A couple got some sparse flowers but none made it to seed because the Monarchs ate them all up. The year before I had done much better with them and collected tons of seeds. I traded most of them off but kept a decent amount for back up which I'm glad i had. Hopefully I will have good results again this year. If I do I'll send you some seeds. Enough so you can sow very heavily. : )
Mrs_Ed, I haven't worked very hard with my MW since they volunteer so prolific down South. And since they volunteer, I have a suspiscion that they require light to germinate? Just a thought. These were volunteers on my tropical hibiscus container. So it's two years old and are making seedpods this early on the season. While I've other volunteer seedlings that are but a few inches tall.
lucky you. I'll check the seed germination chart and see about the light.
Lucky caterpillars is more like it! But where are they all? Pouting.
They're at Merideth's!!!
Lol! I agree about them needing light I sprinkled mine over the top and just mixed them around without really covering them.
I think it's probably got a lot to do with it being cool here too. I'll get them going this weekend as it is supposed to be hot next week.
There we are, if you need seedlings. I can UPS you some. lol.
I know I wish I could offer some but I have a feeling I am going to run out, like I usually do. : )
I am praying they are as nice as the first year I grew them. This pic is from my dg journal - it was taken Aug. 6th. 07 I probably started the seeds in Feb and you can see they are just beginning to bloom.
Great job, Meredith!!!
Thanks! : )
eeek! beautiful.
Yah, Lily, you can make some money by selling them!
Nah, Mrs_Ed. I can't compete with big box stores where they sell gallon pot for 2 bucks worth. lol. But, I think my butterflies will be just as happy and content. Meredith, please send those butterflies my way.