I had several monarchs over much of the winter...

[BlizzardNole]

I an older post below I talked about several cats I found right after a hard freeze had killed down all my tropical milkweed here in central MD. I brought them in and they all pupated, even a couple that were HALF the normal size.

Suprisingly, all seven of them eclosed as adult butterflies, and the two little ones were the tiniest monarchs I've ever seen -- about 2 to 2.5 inches across. I kept them all in a butterfly castle and fed them gatorade by spraying it on artifical flowers. Most gradually died over the next several weeks but I had three that lived well into January, and one that lived until February 18th! It was neat having butterflies in the house when there was 30 inches of snow on the ground.

Just this weekend I got 100-plus tropical milkweeds started under the lights, and will get some zinnias started in a few more weeks.

I'll try to attach some pics if I can figure it out.

[Mona Miller]

This fall I took some cutting of tropical milkweed and they actually are surviving in water. They are beginning to bud to bloom. I am hoping that I can take some cuttings of those and root them. Another year will begin soon. Last year, I had Monarchs in late April.

[BlizzardNole]

I took a stripped one and put it into a pot to see what it would do. It leafed out and flowered in the house by a south-facing window. I might look for a couple of nice full-branched, bushy ones to take in this fall - they make pretty houselpants when in bloom.

I'm also going to do a much better job with pinching off and training them to branch and become fuller plants.