Up the Monarch Nursery Trail

In my last post (a month ago!!!) I predicted I'd be seeing more Monarch butterflies, along with caterpillars and chrysalides, as we progressed in to August.  Well I'm happy to report that my predictions were correct.

During the week I clipped some leaves that had eggs on and brought them inside. (If you click on the images, you can see a larger version to see the eggs)  This method was suggested by members of a Facebook group, but I found that the leaves shriveled very quickly and went crisp before the eggs had hatched.

Once the eggs were hatched I added fresh leaves each day, but it's a lot of work keeping the container clean and I was terrified I was going to throw out a hatchling with the frass (caterpillar poop) and crispy leaves. In addition, the tiny hatchlings seem bound and determined to escape.  They were all over the place!

Now those caterpillars have grown a bit, I have transferred them to milkweed clippings in water picks, like the ones in the photo below. I think this is my preferred method.  If I can find stems with eggs and small caterpillars on them, I can cut out the first step above.

Giving them fresh milkweed is just a case of taking new cuttings and placing them in picks right next to the ones already there.  The caterpillars move over to the fresh leaves pretty quickly and then I can just remove the old ones.

The photo above was taken through the back door, with a bird screen on it, so it's not a great shot.  But do you see anything strange about this photo?

See that little flash of orange in the center of the photo?

There it is again - top left.  A Queen butterfly!  She was flitting around the milkweed as I was collecting clippings and when I went in to get my camera to try and get a photo of her, I couldn't believe when she started laying eggs on the stems I had left on the table!

See her little gift in the middle of the leaf?  

If you look at the enlarged version of this pic, you can see there's a tiny caterpillar on here too.  Not sure if it's a Monarch or a Queen.

So here I go on the Monarch Nursery trail again.

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Pretty in Pink

The the past few years it has seemed like the flowers in the garden have been predominantly orange, with some complementary purple thrown in.

This year, the theme is pink, pink and more pink.

For some reason known only to the flowers themselves, it was only the pink blooms from last year that self-seeded.

This pink Cosmos is at least four foot tall and it's really put on a nice show.  The only problem has been that it's in front of the shorter Salvia Greggi and Pineapple Sage and blocking them  (and any hummingbirds that may be enjoying from view!

These pink Cleomes are about 4 feet tall as well.  They are more or less past their best now (this photo was taken a week or so ago).  I'm collecting seeds so I can start some seedlings and put them where I want them next year.  

I think this giant Violet Queen zinnia is more of a fuchsia pink than violet, but I love it anyway.  I had thrown several seeds directly into the island bed, but this was the only one that came up.  I've got more seeds, but probably too late to try and get them started now.  My bad.

In other news, I had been lamenting the total lack of Monarch butterflies in the garden so far this year, but in the past week or so there has been at least one female, laying eggs and enjoying some nectar.

I've only found two first instar caterpillars so far (click on the photo below to see the larger version and you may see one), but I'm sure there are more eggs around, ready to hatch.

I've set up the mesh  cage on the patio again and have ordered some more water picks to help me keep my milkweed clippings fresh.  I'm ready for the Monarch Nursery to get underway!

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.