Growing milkweed is a popular subject right now. Please read:

How To Identify Wild Milkweed

Transplanting Wild Milkweed

Butterfly Gardens

Clodius Parnassian Butterfly
My photo is now here.

Western Tiger Swallowtail

Pipevine Swallowtail

Folded-Winged Skipper

California Tortoiseshell
Video of Tortoiseshell Emerging

Painted Lady

Polyphemus Moth

Plight of the Monarch

The number of monarch butterflies in the U.S. is declining at an alarming rate. This is due to their natural habitat being destroyed by--you guessed it--humans. What can we do about it? GROW MILKWEED! What's that you say? Milkweed is a weed? Milkweed is for pulling up, stamping out, spraying, poisioning, destroying? Not for planting, growing, nuturing? Without milkweed there can be no monarchs. The choice is ours.

Some milkweed plants are not very pretty, especially with hungry little monarch caterpillars munching away at their leaves, but this is the only food those babies can eat. If you can find a sunny spot, out of the way of traffic, wind, kids, and pets, plant a milkweed patch and hope that if you plant it, they will come.

Milkweed is the "host" plant for the monarchs. That's where the butterflies lay their eggs, and what the larvae eat. Butterflies also need nectar plants for food. When you're choosing flower seeds, look for the little butterfly logo on the seed packet, or in the catalog, and plant some butterfly food to go along with your other blooms.

As of this writing, we have no monarchs in our area and I'm still searching for wild milkweed. I planted Showy Milkweed seeds, but they never sprouted, so I'm starting over again. Hopefully next year I'll have better news to report.

HINT: Monarch larvae start out tiny. They grow out of their skins several times before maturing. You may not recognize them at first, so be careful not to harm anything that might be eating your milkweed until you're sure what it is.

ANOTHER HINT: Spiders are NOT butterfly friends. If you find any 8-legged critters in your milkweed patch or your butterfly garden,, relocate them to some other part of the garden.