Category Archives: Monarch butterfly

Newly emerged

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You ask, why should you plant a butterfly garden? Oh my goodness, the reasons are endless. I could probably come up with a quick 20 reasons without giving it much thought.

I will highlight one – seeing new life in the garden. Why, you ask? Because you watch the butterflies laying eggs, then the caterpillars  eat and grow, eat and grow before they disappear. Sometimes I can find their chrysalis, while other times cannot.

So, when I walk out into the garden and see a butterfly drying its wings, it brings me so much happiness, especially when I did not know a chrysalis was nearby.

Here are two monarch butterflies that emerged in my Southwest Florida garden this week.

Butterlfies appear  . . .

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Butterflies appear when angels are near.

It never fails there is always a butterfly that emerges on a big day for my daughter. Today we had two.

Nature at its finest.

We had two butterflies emerge today, an orange barred sulphur (81) and a monarch butterfly (639). 

Fly free . . .

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We have had a great amount of rain yesterday and today and my garden is looking beautiful!

I had four butterflies emerge this morning in iur butterfly house, 3 monarch butterflies (now totaling 637 released) and one orange barred sulphur butterfly (now totaling 80 released).

The clouds finally parted, the rain stopped, and three of the four have been released.

An extra perk

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My butterfly garden is located right outside my front door and goes along the pathway to the driveway and then extends the length of the house. I have said this multiple times, it was a great placement, as I can watch the butterflies from my couch. The best, though, is catepillars love the little nook by my front door to create its chrysalis.

This time a monarch butterfly chrysalis.

Welcome

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I walk my garden daily, more times than not, multiple times a day.

When you plant a butterfly garden your eyes become trained on what to look for – eggs, caterpillars, chrysalis, butterflies – all the stages of life.

Lately I have found a few newly emerged monarch butterflies in the garden, a great surprise, as I never saw the chrysalis. The last few have been on the underside of the giant  milkweed leaves, the monarchs host plant.

Today, I spotted this beauty still drying its leaves.

Another lifecycle has begun. I have begun to spot many monarch caterpillars again. The clues they give make it easy to spot them, such as their frass left on leaves. The size of the frass also lets you know how big the caterpillar may be.