Hurray and congrats!! I think these guys are going to surprise everyone and make a decent comeback this year. It just seems like people on this forum are having better luck this year than in the past two years, so I'm optimistic. We've all,done great work, and it will pay off.

Martha

Hi Martha!! Have they let that patch of milkweed along the highway grow back?

I have been wondering if the milkweed patch has been promised

Future restoration,also.

DD

Well, I sure hope they make a come back, a big one! I always plant some milkweed in spring, and by late summer, they're big enough to feed a dozen or more cats. I'd guess there are about ?15 caterpillars out there now, and I'm pretty sure there's enough milkweed for them all, since there's one plant with no cats on it at all. They grow fast!

Sherry

Congrats, Congrats, Sherry,

What a lovely photo! So happy to hear you've been gifted with eggs. Like everyone else, I'm so happy to know so many are seeing Monarch activity. Good job to everyone for caring and helping.

Mary

The milkweed by the highway is growing back, but mowing continued all along the highway. They weren't paying any attention to what was a visual hazard or not. It's frustrating. But, I think gardeners are having an impact by growing more milkweed and protecting cats when they show up. I've got a few converts at my office, and they shared my chrysalids with friends, so the impact is spreading.

Martha

Congrats, Sherry. It is a very pretty picture.

They sure do grow fast. I mostly notice them once they have almost devoured a plant. Then I relocate many of them to other milkweeds that are nearby. I have Monarchs most months of the year here in Central Florida, but they seem to come in waves. I only see one or two most days now, but in the spring I would see three or four pretty much every day. I have lots and lots of milkweed on my property. I have not been able to establish a sound base however, where I have many all the time. I do try, but they don't stick around like the Polydamas, Pipevines, Zebra Longwings and Fritillaries.

Sherry,

Love your picture! That is the kind of milkweed that I have and after all these years of growing that type this was the first year I saw cats on it. I have been told that it is not the most favorite of the monarchs but I got caterpillars on it so I was happy. I guess that is all that matters. Nice picture! Thanks for sharing.

Sandy

I've seen alot of monarchs lately here. That and sulfurs. It's been a dry year as far as butterflies go until last week and so many have appeared.

Well, I either had more caterpillars or less milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) than I thought. I moved some of the cats to the extra milkweed, but still, they ate it all had down to the nub - there's nothing out there now but naked stems. They were probably nearly all in the 4th instar (with a few smaller) so I put them in a cage on my porch and fed them the little dab of honeyvine/Cynanchum laeve that I had, but that didn't begin to fill them up. So, I went to Hwy. 49 where Asclepias lanceolata grows, crossing my fingers that they hadn't mowed recently, and I got lucky! It had grown back quickly from the last mowing and was flowering. So I cut them some long stems, they ate all that, so I found some milkweed that I knew grew in a dry area near here (A. viridiflora?) and cut all that for them. They ate all that and still weren't through, so I went back again this morning and got the last bit of A. viridiflora and a lot more A. lanceolata. The majority of them are now on the ceiling of the cages (I put some in another cage) and I went out tonight and found most of them in the "J" - YAY! I managed to cobble together enough milkweed (4 different types) to get them to this stage. But, it's been real rainy and humid for the past several days, and monarchs are so susceptible to disease, I know they're not necessarily out of the woods, yet.

I'm sure looking forward to seeing those green chrysalides and healthy adults!

I'll make a picture tomorrow and post it.

Sherry

They are little piggies aren't they? Congrats on getting so many, Sherry. Let us know how they come out.

Oh, Sherry, I am so glad you were able to find enough milkweed to get them through. You are so fortunate to have native milkweed growing near your home. They CAN, indeed, put away the milkweed!

Mary

Yes, I was really lucky to find so much A. lanceolata, since it gets mowed fairly regularly, Mary!

Only three of the caterpillars are still eating, well, one is resting on the side of the leftovers container, so it may be on its way to the top of the cage. I made some pictures, but they were all so bad, I didn't want to post any of them. It's difficult to make pictures of anything inside a cage on my shady porch, and when I used the flash, it made the pictures over exposed. I'll try again tomorrow. Anyway, all of the chrysalides look perfect, no black spots, no difficulty in making the chrysalis, no problems, knock on wood!

I've got a little of the native milkweed leftover. I looked it up, and you can actually root milkweed! I've been wanting to grow some of the native types along my road, the A. lanceolata in the low, wet spots, and the A. viridiflora in the dry spots. So, I'm going to try and root it. They always mow over the A. lanceolata before the seed pods ripen (grrrrrrrrrrr!) so seeds are never available. A. lanceolata makes beautiful flowers, like A. curassavica, that all butterflies nectar on, and it sure can come in handy when you need more food for your caterpillars!

Martha, I think people north of me have indeed done a good job! Since I normally only get monarch eggs/cats in late summer or fall, mine must come from monarchs on their way to Mexico. I didn't get any last fall, but this fall, I did, undoubtedly thanks to the northerners who planted and cared for milkweed!

Here's a picture of some solid orange A. lanceolata growing on Hwy. 49 -

Here's some pure yellow growing in the same boggy area -

Sherry

Beautiful pictures! We are in Ohio zone 5 and we have diffenently seen more monarchs this year. I am excited about planting more milkweed for next year and seeing how many caterpillars we can get out of our yard. I just have 17 chrysalis left and in fact one opened late yesterday and will be released this morning. Happy butterflying to all for next year!

Sherry, do you have any Swamp Milkweed growing near you? It is a favorite of Monarchs all over the north, and grows really well in moist areas, and prefers full sun. So, it seems like it would do well for you. I have lots of seeds, and it is easy to grow from seed. Let me know if you would like me to send you some seeds.

Martha

Yes, Martha, I could start some from seed next year - thanks so much!

You know I said I thought I'd have some milkweed left over? Well, I had to go get more today! The last three cats just kept eating and eating! I guess you can never have too much milkweed!

I'll try to figure out how to email you my address.

Thanks!

A little group of chrysalides and one caterpillar, which has since become a chrysalis -

Sherry

Sherry, do you ever see Queens? With all the milkweed I would think you might see some.

Tom, there really isn't much milkweed here, I just know where to go to get the limited amount that's here. It pays for people who raise caterpillars to be plant nerds, which I am!

I've never seen a queen here myself. But about 10 or 15 years ago a local woman showed me some pictures of butterflies she had made in her garden, and one was a queen, so I guess they have visited this area before.

Sherry

Oh my goodness, Sherry. Those Milkweed blooms are gorgeous! I had no idea colors like those existed in the milkweed family other than A tuberosa, aka butterfly weed. Maybe you can get some plants growing on your own property and eventually, be able to harvest seed.

Your chrysalides look perfect. Thank you for protecting and raising these Monarchs.

Mary

A. lanceolata is my favorite milkweed, Mary, because of the beauty and variability of the flowers. I posted pictures of pure red/orange and yellow flowers, but most of them are coral with yellow centers. There is also a pink form that used to grow in an area about a ?100 feet north of the others. I couldn't find it the next year after I made this picture, so I need to go back and search to see if it's come back up again. Here's the pink form -

The last two monarch cats have gone to the top of the cage, obviously to make their chrysalis - YAY!

Sherry

'Still releasing a few monarchs, including this beautiful dude -

Sherry

Found 14 Monarch caterpillars today. Some were big, but most are still pretty small. They were on four different plants, so there should be plenty for them to eat. Found some eggs while I was looking. Hopefully I will be seeing a lot of Monarchs soon.

Your pictures are beautiful, Sherry.

Tom, where are you located? I'm in 9a (Spring, TX) and not seeing Monarchs, but have lots of cats!

I'm in Central Florida, about twenty miles west of Orlando. We have Monarchs pretty much year round here--as long as we don't get a hard freeze.

One mother Monarch can lay a whole bunch of eggs. In my case I think it was two or three different butterflies, but there's no way for me to be sure.

Hmmmmm.........your comment about a hard freeze is interesting, Tom. I've known that south Florida has its own group of year-round monarchs, and I've wondered if it would hurt them to keep inbreeding. But if you occasionally lose your monarchs in central Florida, then others from south Florida would come in and take their place and possibly breed with monarchs who have lost their way in the big migration to Mexico from other parts of N. America. That would keep the populations fresh.

Anyway, congrats on your caterpillars!

Sherry

There is, no doubt, some inbreeding, but Monarchs travel, even here in Florida. For me, I have four butterflies that hang around their larval food here--Polydamas, Zebra Longwings, Gulf Frits, and Pipevines. They are around pretty much all the time in my garden, with the most plentiful being the Zebra Longwings. Monarchs don't seem to stick around. They come and they go. I think this means that they are mating with others from some distance away.

I know they suffer from OE. I don't think that we have much control over that here in Florida. Most, however, seem to be healthy--at least the ones that I see, which are clearly survivors.

Had a dozen Monarchs in my garden yesterday . I tried growing some milkweed from seed sent to me from a fellow grardenweber and they didn't come up I probably did something wrong next spring I'm going go along the highway and dig up some starts . I posted this story before but several years ago i had several hundred at once show up in late summer/early fall it was so cool they spent the night and were banging off the windows after dark trying to go to the lights on in the house I got up before daylight and watched them leave after the sun came up have never seen them like that since wish I had thought enough to take some pictures but it was before I had a digital camera and had no film in the camera I had.

So, you are seeing them on the migration back to Mexico and parts south? Do you have any that stay around?

I have a few around every day now and a whole bunch of caterpillars. In a few weeks there should be a bunch flying around.

Sherry, I have a ton of milkweed seeds I could send you. To get me your address, you can go into your profile and enable messages.

Go to the upper right corner of any page and click on "Your Houzz"

Click on "Edit Profile"

In the upper left, click on "Advanced Settings"

Scroll to the bottom to "Privacy Settings"

Choose "Allow anyone to message me"

If you don't want that setting, you can change it as soon as we've exchanged information, or there might be another setting to allow just one person to message you, but I just chose anyone for my profile.

Martha

Monarch visitor!

I'm so excited to find this visitor to my garden--these pictures were taken yesterday but I've seen it or another one today. They look like females according to what I found online. I hope this picture works.

Cool visitor MissSherry!

Junco, is that a ageratum that monarch is on?

Yes, I let it spread all over my garden and only pull it out if it is in the way of something else.

I want some of your milkweeds plants MissSherry! Lol. I have the yellow one, tropical and giant milkweed plants in my garden. And for some reason in the year of 2015, I've been having cats all year!!! And I still have some of them. It has slowed down but all of my tropical milkweeds and yellow have been cut down to get them ready for spring but the giant milkweeds I leave them alone and that's where the cats are munching them all up.