The last few days the same female monarch butterfly has been visiting the garden. You ask, how can I be sure? Well, this beauty has seen better days and has very distinct torn wings.
She is truly incredibly to watch flutter about. A few times she flew by extremely close, almost as if she was saying hello.
Every time I see her she is stopping by one of the five potted zinnia plants, going from flower to flower. Once she has enough nectar she will fly to the giant milkweed, sometimes laying eggs, other times just resting. The photo below shows her resting next to a monarch caterpillar who was busy eating.
My giant milkweed has exploded with monarch caterpillars again. They look to be close to their final instar, if not the final instar. Their gorgeous green chrysalsis will be appearing soon.
I’m really excited about the two pathways that are going through the butterfly garden.
The brick pathway is through the first portion of the garden, which is complete. My daughter painted them years ago, but the paint has since come off, or fading a ton. I may have to scrub them clean, so she can create new designs on them again.
The stone pathway I began today to go through the second portion of the garden.
This pathway, although is very time consuming, I’m loving how it is turning out. My husband brought bricks home years ago and I never knew quite what to do with them. I started getting rid of them, a little every week, until an idea sprung.
I am now using a sledge hammer and breaking them to create another artsy pathway. It’s a huge jigsaw puzzle putting all the broken pieces together.
The best part of today, of course was watching the variety of butterflies that visited the garden while I was out there. We had monarchs, gulf fritillaries, orange barred sulphurs, great southern whites, dainty sulphurs, Cassius blue, polydamas swallowtail and one I got extremely excited about, the giant swallowtail. I sure have created an oasis!
This video shows a polydamas swallowtail, orange barred sulphur and gulf fritillary.
The last of the huge influx of monarch caterpillars emerged today, Easter morning, in our butterfly house.
This beauty is number 632 monarchs that we have raised.
There is a ton of nectar plants in full bloom in the garden, an Easter feast. Its absolutely gorgeous with all the colors. Here’s a blanket flower. They are everywhere!
