Monarch Butterfly Plants available

Will be donating these plants, available at Maplewood Garden Club Plant Sale, Member Grown section, prices $2.50+. http://www.maplewoodgardenclub.org/plant-sale/

I tried to go to the garden club site and got this message:

Crunchy,

Some general ideas needed. 

Approx. space required for a garden?

Position?

Number of plants?  diversity?

Other flutterbys and plant parings.

Timing

@sac:  Link worked for me just now.  

Apollo_T , all the names are there, so you can google the plant details to see their specific needs and habits and match them to what your garden offers (sun, water, fertility, soil composition).  Generally, they all want full sun and are condition-tolerant, once established.  Generally 18" spacing works. The plants I am donating are at a small stage.  The annual/tender perennials will grow to maturity this summer, but the perennial asclepia tuberosa may be much slower to fill it's spot.  There is no right size of garden.  The asclepias are the plants the caterpillars need, the plant the Monarch needs to reproduce, and the others are nectar sources for the butterflies. All can be mixed into an existing bed or even planted alone in a pot.  Experiment, have fun with it and next year you'll know what works in your specific garden.  But every extra plant will help turn Maplewood into an oasis for Monarchs. Google 'Butterfly Garden' and you'll find way more experienced advice then mine on your unanswered questions.

Oops, I misused the 'quote' function.  Not a big MOLer.  Apologies to Apollo_T and all.

joan_crystal said:

@sac:  Link worked for me just now.  

 Working for me now also, so I guess it was a temporary glitch.

Yay!  I've been working on creating a butterfly garden, but have had a hard time finding milkweed.  I am very much looking forward to the plant sale now 

I planted 4 dill plants in a large pot on the deck last summer and was surprised to see that they attracted a lot of butterflies. The caterpillars were black/green/white striped. They may have been monarchs or some other similar-looking species. Unfortunately, the birds got to some of them and the others left without my seeing them emerge from their cocoons, so I can't say for sure what species they were. I'm adding a picture of one of the little caterpillars.

But, if you're putting in a butterfly garden, you may want to include some dill plants.

If you miss the plant sale, I found milkweed at The Great Swamp Greenhouse last year.

carolanne said:

Yay!  I've been working on creating a butterfly garden, but have had a hard time finding milkweed.  I am very much looking forward to the plant sale now 

Caterpillar, I think, is of swallowtail butterfly.  I let them have all my dill and parsley, just to enjoy looking at them.  Kind of like a moving, munching flower.