Gardens

[Pixie]

This past weekend here in St. Louis, I began cleaning out my garden beds - imagine my surprise when I found many perennials poking through the ground - coneflowers, N.E. asters, anemones, monarda & black eyed susans...............no sign of the milkweed yet as they usually poke through the end of March, first of April...........I am so anxious for the 2009 butterfly season!! Last week I gave a presentation to the second grade class at my local elementary school on the life cycle of the monarch - what fun.........They are currently studying butterflies & these little 2nd graders knew much about the life cycle of butterflies..............I told them about tagging the monarchs & they were enthralled - this is something they did not know about............I will be updating the class with regards to the northern migration of the monarchs & will let the class know if any of my tags were found in Mexico.............

[dandjtaylor]

Pixie

Same here. Imagine my surprise when the goldenrods are already poking through the old mulch. I don't expect my coneflowers or asters or milkweed for a few weeks yet though. Gives me some time to see where I want to put my several hundred new nectar seedlings in my basement under the lights!

Happy Gardening and Bring on the MonarchS

Dwayne and Jen
SAlem, MA
Waystation #2638

[Mona Miller]

I have about 300 tropical milkweeds started inside. Outside, I am waiting for the swamp, butterfly weed, and common milkweed to emerge out of the ground. Waiting for the Monarchs to arrive is like expecting a very wonder gift.

[Bunny Jo]

We are fortunate here in Florida to have the warmer weather which has helped my scarlet milkweed to leaf out and flower again in the garden. They never did freeze even with the few days of below freezing weather we had in Jan. I've seen some Monarchs flying around the yard and we still have 2 chrysalises waiting to emerge.

[Pixie]

Last fall I harvested some curassavica seeds - this is an annual here in St. Louis. This week I potted them in six small pots, following directions from the website finegardening.com..............I will now keep my fingers crossed that I will have some new seedlings for my garden. My lawn man is coming tomorrow to help me enlarge my garden - he is so helpful.............I will be planting more milkweed & would like to try some varieties other than what I have already, tho not sure what would be applicable here............Today I found dozens of buds opening on my magnolia tree - so beautiful!! So anxious to get to the spring planting!!!!!!

[sbannister]

Hi, Everyone

I am also very excited about Spring. Everything here has really turned green in the past week. I also have Monarchs all year, but now there are more and more of them and my milkweed is sprouting new shoots and there are lots of baby cats and eggs. I planted some giant fennel and it is now 6' tall and yesterday I found some Black Swallowtail eggs. I wish everyone a successful gardening/butterflying season!

Susan

[Pixie]

Today, March 25, one of my incarnata milkweeds has come through in the garden - so exciting!!!!!!!
sbannister - I also plant for the black swallowtails - parsley & fennel & zinnias for the nectar.............Last season I had dozens of black swallowtail cats - my grand-daughter just loves petting the swallowtail cats & gets excited when they send up their stinky odor, thinking she is a predator!! What fun we have with them!

[dandjtaylor]

Pix
We also have added Bronze Fennel, Dill, Rue, Parsley, Carrrot for the Bl. Swallowtail. Cabbage and Nasturtium for the Whites, as well as Pussytoes for the American Ladies (fingers crossed). Violets for the Fritillaries, but they are a bit more difficult.
We will post as our "hosts" become a success.
D&J

[Mona Miller]

It may take a while. I planted Rue (herb) for the Giant Swallowtails and Pawpaw for the Zebra Swallowtails, it took 5 years for them to find me, but they did.

[sbannister]

DT,

I have tried cabbage for the whites too, but only get the little cabbage loopers, which are cute, but not as exiting as the whites. I also have tried hollyhock for painted ladies (or American - can't remember which) and snapdragons for buckeyes, but have not gotten any. I like all of these flowers anyway so if it takes a few years for the butterflies to find them, then I can wait. I didn't know they might come along after a few years, Mona.

Passionvine works great for gulf frittilaries in this area. I want to get some of the yellow candlestick plant, Senna, I think, for Sulphurs but haven't found it reasonably priced.

Susan

[dandjtaylor]

Susan

Yeah, we are keeping our fingers crossed. We based our host plant choices on the most abundant species that we saw hanging around our flowers last year. The Whites were all over our Anise Hyssop all summer and the Black Swallowtails and Am. Ladies loved the Butterfly Bushes. But at least we know that our Milkweeds work their magic, at least we arfe sure to have maonarch cats again.

I wish that we were in range of the Gulf Frit's. They are gorgeous!

DT

[Bunny Jo]

Susan--the passion vine is great here, too. I've planted 2 varieties--the Incarnata and the Corky Stemmed which the Zebra Longwings love. I had great success raising several Frittilaries and Longwings inside--they are so different from the Monarchs, especially their chrysalises. I have quite a few new cats on my milkweed now and am trying to keep some of the predators away!

[keithpetrosky]

I actually get tropical milkweed seeds sprouting from last years plants, and I live in NY! I planted some Common Milkweed seeds this year, hope they take!

[Mona Miller]

If the winter isn't too bad, I also get the tropical milkweed sprouting from seed. Last year, I didn't get to collect seed due to too many caterpillars eating up everything.