We had a female monarch butterfly emerge, taking out count to #470 successful releases into the garden. A great Valentine’s Day present.
Meet “Valentine”
Reply
Tag Archives: Monarch butterfly
On the lookout
With the sun shining and temperatures warm, I decided to do some maintenance in the garden. My scorpion tail bush has grown out of control, into the sidewalk, as well as popping up in the most random places, so I decided to do a little trimming.
With my 7 year olds watchful eye, she noticed 4 monarch chrysalis attached to branches I had cut off. I always wonder where the caterpillars disappear, as their chrysalis are not always in plain sight. These four really crawled deep into the vegetation to make their chrysalis. They are now in our butterfly house, so they can emerge safely.
Everywhere
It’s been amazing to see the amount of monarch caterpillars in the gardens. Even more amazing are the chrysalis that are popping up in and around the garden. Some caterpillars have crawled a good distance to make a chrysalis on my garage doors, to the side of the house, and of course on posts in the garden.
Sweet penta nectar
We’ve had a bit of a cooler weather spell here lately, which has been wonderful for us Floridians. Today, with the warmer, cloudless blue skies, the monarchs have been in abundance. This female was not bothered at all by the countless photographs I took, or how close I became. She was hungry, feasting on the sweet nectar of the red penta, which is in abundance right now.
The lone caterpillar
Yesterday there were three monarch caterpillars on this particular milkweed leaf. The others must have found their final resting place to make its chrysalis. There is a tree nearby, I would imagine they are somewhere in there seeking shelter to transform to a beautiful butterfly.
Now, just this lonesome caterpillar. I moved him to a milkweed plant that offered an abundance of food.
