Monthly Archives: July 2025

Determination

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The last few days I have been watering newly planted milkweed, as the heat is extreme,  and the rain has not been falling as often. The best time to do this is about an hour before the sun goes down.

It appears this is the best time to stroll through the garden, as the last few days there have been monarchs feasting on nectar. Tonight’s dinner, the nectar of a Mexican sunflower.

I loved watching this monarch’s determination of extending its proboscis, finding the opening of the flower, and sipping the nectar.

The best things happen when you slow down enough to witness nature at its finest.

A new lifecycle

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I have recently planted an abundance of milkweed for the monarch butterflies.

I now have two giant milkweed that stand at least 7 feet tall, four butterfly milkweed plants, two whorled milkweed plants and two balloon milkweed plants. It was important to me to offer a variety, kind of as an experiment to see which one they prefer to lay their eggs.

The monarch caterpillars feed solely on milkweed leaves, which produces glycoside toxins, according to the National Wildlife Federation, which deters other animals from eating the caterpillars. The toxins are stored making them taste bad and remains after they emerge into a butterfly, continuing to protect them.

The last fewdays I have noticed holes in my giant milkweed leaves, signaling that the baby monarch caterpillars have arrived!

Sure enough, I spotted quite a few strolling along on the leaves.

There are four stages in the life cycle of a monarch butterfly: the egg, the larvae (caterpillar) the pupa (chrysalis) and the butterfly.

A little skipper

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I see this little checkered skipper all over the yard enjoying the nectar from weeds. I was thrilled to see it in the garden this morning.

One of the best new additions to the garden is the purpletop vervain, an excellent nectar source. This flower has been visited by a slew of different species. I just added two more to the garden, since it is visited by so many.

A zinnia meal

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It’s that time of year when the only good time to work in the garden is very early in the morning, or about an hour before the sun goes down.

There was a male monarch butterfly that followed me around the garden feasting on the nectar of many different colored zinnias. It loved the white and the orange flowers.

The zinnia is a wonderful flower to add to a butterfly garden. Butterflies of every species loves the nectar. The best part is it is among the easiest plants to grow. The best part is it constantly produces more seeds to continue a steady new growth in the garden.

It was rewarding to spend time in the garden, as we both co-existence almost side by side.

This beauty

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It is always a thrill to spot the zebra longwing butterfly, especially since Hurricane Ian impacted our area in Sept. 2022. That devastating hurricane did quite a number on the state butterfly.

I have spotted the zebra longwing a few times in my garden in the past few years. Today, it caught my eye while in my mom’s garden, as she has quite a few mature fire bush planted, one of their favorite nectar plants.

There’s hope that this butterfly will once again find the garden, it’s host plant, corkystem passionvine, and start its lifecycle in our garden again.