Tag Archives: monarch butterflies

Great activity

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Mornings are a great part of the day to walk through the garden and admire all the butterflies fluttering about.

The monarch butterfly could not get enough of nectar from one of the fire bush plants. It was awsome to watch its head disappear into the opening of the flower grabbing as much nectar as possible through its proboscis.

The polydamas swallowtails were also active, with three of them fluttering about. They were finding both its host plants, birthwort pucgured below, and stops on nectar plants throughout the entire length of the garden.

And of course it would not be complete without the active gulf fritillaries.

These guys are fun to watch, as they chase off many other species of butterflies while stopping on its favorite plants, porterweed.

Butterfly gardening has become such an amazing passion of mine. Who would have thought the saying “plant them and they will come” would continue to draw my excitement and attention almost 7 years later?

Green and gold

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It was a quiet winter in the butterfly garden with the cold snaps we experienced here in Southwest Florida.

Althought the mornings start off with a slight chill in the air, by mid morning, definitely going into afternoon, the temperatures sure heat up bringing the butterflies fluttering into the garden.

I have had a butterfly garden for almost six years now – the thrill never gets old. Every day I walk through the garden in hopes of finding eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalis.

Lately, the hunt has been really easy as there are many caterpillars – monarch, gulf fritillary, polydamas swallowtail, and orange barred sulphur – right now on their various host plants.

The monarch caterpillars seem to mulitple as the days of the week go by.

There are many monarch caterpillars in every instar on the various milkweed throughout the garden. My two newly planted balloon milkweed have been a favorite.

The chrysalis are appearing as well, some on leaves, some roaming the perimeter of my house.

They are back

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The warm weather and sunny skies has sure brought the butterflies back to the garden again.

Since Easter, the monarch population has grown leaps and bounds in the butterfly garden. The caterpillars are on both my balloon milkweed, and giant milkweed, in various instars.

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.

After the butterfly lays a cream colored egg on the bottom of a milkweed leaf, it takes anywhere from three to five days to hatch. The larvae chews a small hole in the egg to wiggle free. Once it emerges it consumes the rest of the egg before moving onto the leaf.

As the yellow, black and white stripped caterpillar eats the milkweed leaf it continues to grow and molts its old skin, splitting it in half. The caterpillar often consumes the skin before continuing eating the milkweed leaf. It can grow in length to 2″.

One of my favorite parts about having a butterfly garden is finding where the caterpillars end up making their final destination. The chrysalis below was found on my watering can, a good distance, but not too far away at the same time. 

The monarch butterfly resting on red penta, a favorite nectar plant for many species of butterflies.

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).