What a wonderful and worthy project! Kudo's to you and your helpers for your participation. Thank you for sharing.

Mary

How was business? I dream of puting a similar program together, but West Michigan is a different world than the PNW. Though, I'm sure we have sizable pockets of forward-thinking folks.

Do you start your seeds under lights, or outside, or in greenhouses? What kind of numbers are you working with? I could plant entirely different species. I would offer A. Syriaca, A. Tuberosa, A. Incarnata, A. Exalta. I am growing A. Speciosa, and I had some fascicularis seedlings that may or may not still be alive. But, those last two aren't necessarily native to my area. I have tuberosa reseeding happily, so I am developing a wonderful patch in an area where not much else will grow without supplemental water.

Anyway, just wanted to say good luck and keep up the good work. You are helping many pollinators, in addition to the Monarchs.

Martha

The project is going very well. We sold something on the order of 4 or 500 plants. We could have sold more if the plants were larger and if we went to more events, like farmers markets. We're working on growing bigger plants for next year after seeing successes and failures after two years. We have about 1200 pots seeded for next year already. The fact that I actually had a few monarchs in my milkweed this year will sell some plants next spring. It is a ton of work for the piddling amount we make, so no one is planning on quitting their day job...

We have a bunch of tuberosa, syriaca and incarnata seed. We don't grow syriaca except a few plants because they're "very vigorous" and non-native. We're doing a lot of the other two though because they're very garden friendly. We have a couple small plants of exaltata but they aren't producing seeds yet. We might want some of those... I'll ask what the others think.

Weve found that the best place to start seeds is outside. They like full sun from the start.

Thanks for the encouragement!