I have a lot of Monarch eggs on my milkweed. She even laid them on my seedlings that just got the first pair of true leaves. I did find my first caterpillars of the year on bronze fennel today.

Oh my, it is so stressful when there isn't enough milkweed available. It is just so early in the season! Do you have predators that get the little cats? If the eggs disappear it isn't as bad as when the little cats get carried away. Nothing would survive here if I didn't protect the eggs and just hatched cats. I know it's natures way but it is difficult for me to see and know what is happening.

Congratulations on your little black swallowtail cats. They're already getting so big and boy, do they love that fennel!

How is your new butterfly garden coming along? Have you seen anything germinating yet?

Mary

I do have predators around. At this point all I can do is to make sure the caterpillars have enough food. Even this is stressful, not all is readily available. Last years emergency spicebush comes to mind. I am having two new butterfly gardens this year. Not sure what I was thinking. One is a small one connecting two sets of shrubs. The seeds are sprouting, some of my winter sowing efforts already in the ground. The flowerbeds are not really worth sharing pictures yet, that's going to be a while, but here you go.

Congrats, Mary, on your numerous monarchs! I haven't seen a single one this year, but then I don't usually see them until late summer. One year I had monarch cats in spring, but only once that I can remember. You're really trying a lot of different types of milkweed, which is great! After reading about your giant MW, I ordered two from a greenhouse in Delaware - Almost Eden is out, as you know. I've never ordered from this company, hope the plants are in decent condition when they arrive.

Iris, bless your heart, you've got so much work to do after having done so much already! I hope the butterflies appreciate you! What's the seedling? It looks like the only one to come up so far from the new milkweeds I planted last year - I think I planted common MW and beautiful MW.

Sherry

This little one is a showy milkweed seedling from my winter sowing. I also did this for tall green and a seed packet that has common, swamp and butterfly weed in it. Planted some seeds of the latifolia a few weeks ago. All my perennial milkweeds from previous years are coming up, so if the Monarch would have waited until August like last year I wouldn't be so stressed out.

If I would have gotten another month... picture of common from mid May last year. So heads up to Mary. with the 27 caterpillars and counting I would probably get an ulcer. All these eggs I have aren't even caterpillars and I am already worrying.

Showy milkweed might have been what I planted, can't remember, Iris. I'll be disappointed if more don't come up. On the plus side, I'm getting more tropical milkweed volunteers than ever, and I potted up three of them this afternoon, because they were growing against the boards of the raised bed they're in - hopefully, I can grow them in the pots for a while, then plant them out in more favorable spots. Several came up in good spots, fortunately, and two of the three milkweed vines I planted last year are finally returning.

Don't worry Iris, everything will work out okay.

Sherry

I started a new head count today and only got about half way through. I may have over 100-125 cats plus eggs (qbout 50 counted so far), I know I don't have enough milkweed, so I am looking into finding new homes for some of them. I gave my friend 20 of the first group. What a crazy seaon!

Sherry, please keep us updated on how your giant mw does for you. I am debating whether to keep mine in big pots this year or plant out again. I'm sure the growth will be much less by growing in pots but if they will live in the pots and produce some top growth, it would be so much easier to move them back into the gh come late fall. Digging up the largest one last fall to pot up for winter in gh just about did me in. I also found some seed for the giant mw so ordered and will attempt to start some new plants for backup. If I plant inground at least one giant milkweed and I have new plants coming along in pots, I can just let the one in the ground die this fall rather than having to dig it up. Tom has great success with starting new plants with cuttings and I will try that earlier this year. My cuttings last fall didn't survive. I also read the seed of this mw only remains viable about a year. Have never had a seed pod on mine so no way to try and confirm that information. In fact, can't imagine the size of an insect that would be required to pollinate those big blooms! :-)

I am trying to get more perennial mw growing by planting a lot of the small A perennis this year so not always scrambling to get so much tropical seeded and planted out each season. The leaves can grow almost as large as the tropical and it blooms throughout the summer, unlike other native perennial mw I grow. It provides a long season of blooms for nectar and leaves to feed to the Monarchs. It also regenerates quickly when part of a stem is removed.

What is a surprise for me is the Purple mw. It seems to like the growing conditions here. I've ordered more seed and will attempt to get more of that coming up. I've noticed more young sprouts of common popping up in unexpected places (roots have escaped from the big pot) and I will let it grow to use for food this spring. Thank goodness as it grows fairly quickly and has such big leaves. Trouble is it is just about useless by the fall migration. I guess it's too hot and humid here for it to last through a long season of growth. This is where the giant milkweed shines as a late season food supply.

The stand of common Iris has is stunning.

Iris, your new garden areas look fantastic. So happy winter sowing provided you with seedlings for your new garden. It takes a while for plants to mature when started from seed but they grow into strong healthy plants and it's fun to watch them grow and mature. Growing plants this way has taught me patience, for sure! And what fun to have such a large area to plan and plant. My goodness, you are going to be able to attract so many little pollinators and butterflies with such a large planting. I'd be out there all the day long, watching to see what turned up. Thank you so much for sharing the photos. I hope you'll continue to share as your garden progresses this year. Thank you so much for growing these gardens for the pollinators and butterflies.

lascatx, bless your heart for caring for these little guys. You are doing all you can and you can do no more. The bottom line is the Monarch needs more milkweed growing throughout their flyway. As a nation, we've just eradicated too much native milkweed from our lands and the Monarch is paying the price. Maybe with education, more gardeners and land owners will help reverse this situation. When I look at the stock at various nurseries now, I notice most of the milkweed offerings are usually 'out of stock' already, this early into the year. People are trying to help by purchasing and planting more milkweed and that is encouraging. I've meant to ask you, do you get a freeze or hard frost where you live? Do you have to start over with each new butterfly season?

The spring migrators are SO important and you're doing a wonderful job of helping boost their numbers for the generations to follow. Try not to fret over what you can't do and enjoy the ones you're able to help.

Mary

Well, I've had a hard three days of Monarch tending. I was trying to keep up with the cats I was watching and getting to creating an new enclosure but had other projects plus rain, so my progress has been more limited than my plans. Anyway, I discovered that in one emergency enclosure where I had put eggs I couldn't keep inside on a plant and a few hatchlings, something happened to the eggs. Ants, maybe? Anyway, where I thought I might have 20 tinies, I had no more than 5 and in another 10 was about 3. That was the day after I was writing about the overwhelming numbers. Then yesterday, I had to freeze 10 cats. It would have been 12, but a wasp was crawling all over the numbs of the plants I had set to the side when I spotted 2 young and healthy cats. I rescued them before they were found, but that meant letting the wasp get one of the sicks ones. Maybe it will make him sick too. Today, I had 8 more. That's 20 sick ones in the last 2 days. And of course, they were all instar 5 and the milkweed is disappearing -- even as new butterflies appear and lay more eggs. Yesterday, while I draped some net over pots with cats until I could move them, a butterfly appeared and was desperately trying to get under the net to lay eggs. She laid three on the net.

Why can't they be obviously sick when they are little and not after they have eaten a boatload of milkweed? And why don't my tiny milkweed seedlings start growing? I hope the rest will be healthy, and if they are, I hope I can keep them fed.

Lascatx, I am so sorry to hear this. We had two days of rain, so the common milkweed is really taking off. My seedlings seem to be working on their roots and not growing on top. I got an "emergency" supply of milkweed in the mail today. They are a lot smaller than expected. Also have a few eggs and a tiny caterpillar on them. The caterpillar might be dead, he is not moving. Don't know about the eggs.

The cat may be changing size. Hope so. I just lost two more to a wasp, then found the same or another wasp in the enclosure -- that wasp is dead.

I am not sure I could deal with the heartbreak of raising caterpillars like you all do. The package was in transit from Florida for two days. It's was mid 80's here today. I unpacked within 10 minutes of it arriving.

Give any cats 24 hrs and watch them if they are not oozing or obviously very wrong. They will usually respond to touch, but I just moved a bunch of them and some took some serious encouraging to get them moved They shed their skin and change size 5 times on the path from egg to chrysalis.

As far as when to start a new thread, it's not always an easy call, but under the heading of mid-April report, my thought was this was a place to post updates -- until late April or May anyway.

Looks like I should have a new butterfly tomorrow. That will help -- and the other cats have all been moved. I still have some work to do, but I think things are under control until morning when I need to get them more food and clean up the chewed plants. Maybe I'll get to watch a butterfly emerge in the process. :)

Iris Stoiser(SC, 7b), I don't really know if there are rules that dictate when to start a new thread but please post on any of the threads I've started that strikes your fancy. It's all enjoyment and learning. I love to read everything posted here in the butterfly forum and I've likely stepped on toes by posting to other threads without thinking; please forgive. Everyone here is so nice and supportive, it is difficult to think anyone would be offended. For me, all the threads reflect a big family gathering, conversations going on all over, with everyone chipping in.

I'm so sorry about the little cat. Sometimes they become ill and there's not much we can do except to isolate and hope for the best. Remember, sometimes they might appear ill but just be preparing to molt. The little cats can be still, without moving, for long hours or even more than a day, when they're molting. I just leave them be and when I have to clean their containers, if they're on the old diaper, I gently cut the paper around them and place that back onto the clean diaper. In time, they molt and then rejoin the feeding frenzy.

Mary

Thank you, Mary! The people here on the forum are really nice. Bless the Native Plant Society. Their sale was a zoo, but I got some great looking milkweed.

Woohoo, what a wonderful haul! Lucky you. They all look healthy and ready to grow! A BIG Congrats. I'd love to be able to attend such a sale but to my knowledge, we don't have anything like that here. Maybe the Master Gardeners plant sale will offer some native plants. I need to check.

Mary

My younger daughter went with me, so it was a lot easier getting the pots to the holding area and such. When we got there about 10 minutes before it opened there were at least 150 people waiting in line. It's great there is such big interest in native plants. And everybody is friendly and polite. Nobody cutting in line or complaining about waiting.