Tag Archives: Monarch butterfly

A must have

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One of the things I enjoy about gardening is the trial-and-error aspect of it all. Plant something here, plant something there. Plant this variety, or that. Some thrive, some shrivel up and die. Some give off lots of seeds, while others spread voluntarily. A garden becomes a work of art, as you continue to fill in the spaces and make it a butterfly wonderland.

Recently the plant of success has been the zinnia. This plant is incredibly easy to grow from seed and does not take too long to mature. It’s one that keeps giving, as well. The best part is it is doing well without our daily Florida rain, in the heat, nonetheless. I have found that they do best in the ground, though, and not so well in pots.

By far the best addition to the garden, the ever stunning, visited often, zinnia.

One shy of 450

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We had four more monarch butterflies emerge in our butterfly house, two of which I witnessed slowly come out of its chrysalis. That, will never get old.

Magical

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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.

A male emerged

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We have taken a break from raising monarch caterpillars for the last few months until my husband spotted a caterpillar crawling up our lanai screen looking for a place to make its chrysalis. I put the caterpillar in our butterfly house and it instantly found a branch to make its J and create its green chrysalis. Yesterday a beautiful male monarch successfully emerged and was released in our garden.

He chose a zinnia to rest on and then a red sage before taking a longer flight out of the garden.

This beauty marks No. 429 that we have raised and released.

The monarch butterfly’s scientific name is Danaus Plexippus, which means “sleepy transformation” in Greek. The male has two black spots in the center of its lower wings and are larger in size than the female. According to the National Wildlife Federation, the spots are scent glands, which help the males attract females.

My zen

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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.