Seriosuly, does it get better than this? A monarch caterpillar conversing with a monarch butterfly on a giant milkweed. Nature is the best, butterfly gardens even better.
This morning, we had two monarch butterflies emerge and released into the front garden. Both of them were female, and both fluttered to a different destination among the plants to rest a little longer. One a few times.
This morning, as I was sitting in the living room looking out the window a monarch butterfly caught my attention as it glided from one plant to another. So, like any other day, I grabbed my camera and headed for the front garden.
This female absolutely loved the nectar from my red penta plant. She sipped to her heart’s content, before flying to the giant milkweed, laid an egg and then went back for some more nutrition. She was not bothered by me at all, as I snapped close to 50 photographs.
Did you know there are two different populations of monarch butterflies? The south Florida population breeds year round without migrating, while the other population is a larger eastern butterfly, which does migrate. An absolute perk of living in Southwest Florida, the ability to see these gorgeous butterflies flutter throughout the garden with the perfect gliding flight. In southern Florida, they breed all year.
The monarch can be found in all states except Alaska.
I find it interesting that the caterpillars will often cut, or eat the leaves near the base of the leaf’s blade in order to drain out the latex before eating. I read that the monarch will lay their eggs on the most toxic of the milkweed species, giving their offspring a chance at making it through its lifecycle.
Here are quite a few photographs from this morning of the monarch butterfly.
The garden was alive and well early this morning with newly emerged monarch butterflies drying their wings, while others were sipping nectar and laying eggs. Although we see butterflies all year in Southwest Florida, I love this time of year, as more seem to visit the garden, leaving behind eggs for more generations to come, or stopping in for a treat of nectar.
The first picture of the monarch on the firebush, I am absolutely stoked about. My mom gave me a clipping from her garden more than a year ago. I am happy to say this is the first time I have ever had it flower and it’s filling in the space quite nicely.
This hobby has blossomed in so many ways. For me it has combined my love of butterflies and new found interest in plants. The great thing about gardening is after you establish plants, the majority of the time it keeps giving, as seeds spread, or “root suckers” under the ground spread far.
Here are just a few of the lovely monarchs that caught my attention this morning.
With my butterfly house currently occupying another species of caterpillars, I am leaving the monarch caterpillars in the garden. It has been fun finding the fat boys either on or near milkweed throughout the garden. The first monarch caterpillar is resting on a coreopsis, the Florida wildflower, while the other was chomping away on the giant milkweed.
Although we have butterflies year round in Florida, the visitors to the garden sure has multiplied since the temperatures have become a consistent 80 to 90 degrees.
I was ecstatic when I found the various stages of the ladybug on my milkweed. I am thrilled to see that the ladybugs have dispersed throughout the front garden and are now starting to mate. The more the merrier, as the aphids are still plentiful in the garden.
