MONARCH WAYSTATION

Welcome to:  Norway, Belgium, Mongolia, Bolivia, Haiti, Bulgaria, Venezuela, Malta, Mozambique, Bangladesh, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Iran, Belarus, El Salvador, Panama, Saudi Arabia and Maldives!


89 Countries and counting!




Been gone for a while.  Lots of life got in the way last summer, and I pretty much had to abandon a lot of my gardening.





I did get to spend a little time in my yard at home and got to join a great club.  I am now a member of
MONARCHWATCH.ORG!

Last summer I had my yard certified as a Monarch Waystation.  This kind of yard provides the environment that is necessary for the Monarch Butterfly to reproduce and to stop and dine on their way to Mexico for their yearly migration.

Butterfly heaven

Host plants are necessary for the eggs and larva, but just as important are the late blooming nectar plants needed for their long journey.



Plants in the Milkweed family, Asclepias, are the only plants that the larva will eat.  Nothing else will sustain them.  Milkweed and butterfly weed  (not butterfly bush, buddleia) once upon a time were abundant in our area.  As houses started to take over the farmland and pastures, these plants were not considered beautiful enough to put into our home landscapes.

Flowers of butterfly weed - asclepias tuberosa

Monarch caterpillar on butterfly weed - Asclepias tuberosa

The butterfly will lay its eggs on the leaves of the plant.  When the egg hatches, about 3 days,  the larva hangs out on the plant and eats and eats and eats.  It will then start the pupa - chrysalis stage nearby.  That can happen on any branch or structure.   When the butterfly emerges, it can get its food from multiple sources.  Even non native plants, like the butterfly bush.

The butterfly has 3 generations per summer in our area.  They are short lived 2 - 6 weeks, so it is their goal to keep reproducing.  The last generation is long lived.  They will live up to 8 months and make a long trip to Mexico to winter and start their new brood for the next generation.




To become a way station, your yard needs host plants and nectar plants.  The organization has a list of plants needed, so all you have to do is check off the plants you have.   Butterflies also need water - they prefer puddles ( which I have plenty of in my back yard) and safe areas for the pupa (chrysalis) stage.  I have wood piles around my yard.  You email this information and are then certified and added to a registry.  When you are certified, you can elect to buy a metal sign to post in your yard.

The most striking thing about my yard is the huge variety of late blooming perennials.  When all the other flowers are fading and dying, these flowers burst to life. New England asters, goldenrod, obedient  plant, ironweed.  At the demonstration garden I work in, we have had people stop and get out of their cars to ask about our late blooming flowers. These plants are not available at the big box stores, so you really have to do research to know what you want,  then visit a nursery that specializes in native plants, or check out mail order nurseries.

helianthus

echinacea

helianthus

liatrus

milkweed - asclepias incarnata

rudbeckia

obediant plant - Physostegia virginiana

phlox

rudbeckia - black eyed susan

aster- blooms until hard frost   Cosmos and Dahlias also

aster

baptisia

Cool stuff:


Cicada Killer

First asparagus in my first asparagus crop!

MILKWEED AND MONARCHS

Welcome to Fiji!   #24

I have been planning this page for several months.  I was introduced to the lowly milkweed plant last fall during our fall cleanup day at the demonstration garden.  I had never seen them up close, just from a distance when the pods had opened to release the seeds. This I usually observed from a car window while taking a ride in the country with my parents many decades ago.





I was shown that if you tear the leaf,  a white, milky liquid seeps out of the leaf.  This liquid is poisonous to most insects and birds.  Just a few insects feed off this plant.  It is also one of the few host plants for the Monarch Butterfly larvae and eggs.  Interestingly enough, these insects all have similar coloring.  Very bright orange and black markings to alert predators to leave them alone, as they will be toxic to eat.  There is another butterfly with similar markings that is not poisonous to birds.  The Viceroy Butterfly does not eat the milkweed, but the birds will steer clear because they mimic the Monarch so closely.

milkweed leaf

milkweed beetle

milkweed bugs working on making more milkweed bugs

Milk weed is a perennial, a Maryland native, and crucial to the survival of the Monarch Butterfly.  I was so surprised by how pretty the flowers were up close and how sweet the scent of the flower is.  The Monarch will lay her eggs on a milkweed leaf.  When the eggs hatch, the larvae hang around and eat the leaves.  This is their only food source at this stage.


Below is an early spring picture of our Master Gardener Demonstration Garden on Montevue Lane.

milkweed plants have the larger oval leaves.  Check out plant at 9:00

a group of milkweed at the MG Demonstration Garden

milkweed flower - Asclepias syriaca - Common Milkweed

seed pods

pods open and seeds are blown away by winds

I took a trip down to Brookside gardens today and got some incredible picture of the Monarch Butterfly at different stages of development.

information sign at Brookside

The small, round, cream color dots are Monarch eggs

Monarch caterpillar

caterpillar attached and starting chrysalis stage

chrysalis - you can see the outline of his wings!

when the chrysalis turns black, the butterfly is almost ready to emerge

would not cooperate and open wings fully

profile of Monarch

This is the last generation this summer of Monarchs in our area.  The group that is hatching now will travel to Mexico to spend the winter.  Along the way, the butterflies depend on late blooming flowers for their food source.  Asters, Ironweed, and Goldenrods are examples of some late blooming natives.




After their winter in Mexico, this butterfly will start the trip back.  It will breed along the way and its' descendants will return to our area in the spring.

Now, about host plants.  No host plants, no Monarchs. The Monarch Butterfly larvae will only eat a few plants.  It is classified as a Milkweed Butterfly.  With Suburbia encroaching on rural areas, we are losing a lot of our native plants.  The milkweed is not a plant of choice in a well manicured, suburban garden.  Let's face it, it gets ugly after the flowers are done blooming.  But, there are other options.  The butterfly weed is shorter and neater.

butterfly weed - Asclepias turberosa

 getting ready to release seeds

Below is a plant I found on my farm.  I didn't see him at the time, but if you look hard, in the upper third of the picture slightly right of center, you can see the stripes of the monarch caterpillar attached to the underside of a leaf.  I can't believe I didn't see him,  I even looked!

swamp milkweed in my boggy field by stream at farm  - Asclepias incarnata

Once the butterflies have emerged, they can feed off many flowers.  Even the butterfly bush, which has become an invasive plant in some areas.  In Oregon it is classified as a noxious weed.  I have planted a lot of natives this year to keep butterflies in my garden.   Rule #1  NO PESTICIDES.   Most pesticides don't care if you only want to kill certain bugs.  Most kill all bugs.




Well,  first cold day here.  It is now 46 degrees at 0824.  Will spend a few hours in the vegetable gardens cleaning up and removing old mulch and throwing into compost bins, and planning my fall and winter crops!