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Houston, Josuha's Native Plants, milkweed, Monarch Butterfly, Monarch Watch, organic gardening, Ravenscourt Landscaping & Design LLC, Red Milkweed, The Flight of Butterflies Imax
In Houston we are very fortunate to see Monarch butterflies, (Danaus plexippus) they are also known as the milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. It is probably the most well-known butterfly in the United States. The monarch, an insect with a body the size and weight of a paper clip can migrate 1,500 miles, is famous for its southward autumn migration from the United States and southern Canada to Mexico and coastal California, and its northward return in spring, which occurs over the lifespans of three to four generations of the butterfly. Newly hatched pupa fly to specific overwintering site, miraculously a trip it has never taken before. They return north in spring to reproduce. From egg to larva to pupa to adult, butterfly metamorphosis is fascinating to children and adults. Scientists still don’t understand the journey of monarch migration — how successive generations of butterflies are able to navigate to a place they’ve never been before. For more information – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch_butterfly
The IMAX movie, Flight of the Butterfly tells the story of the long search by the scientist to unlock the secret of the butterflies’ migration.”

Be captivated by the true and compelling story of an intrepid scientist’s 40-year search to find their secret hideaway, with the help of citizen scientists across North America. Unravel the mysteries and experience the Flight of the Butterflies.
Here is a book I recommend to share with children.
A free down loadable page of the lifestyle of a Monarch for children to color – http://www.monarch-butterfly.com/monarch-life-cycle-coloring.html
Why do the monarchs need our help? You have may have heard their populations are declining during the past decade and no one is sure of the reason why. Scientists believe this is not a short term phenomenon caused by specific weather events, such as drought or hurricanes. They had thought a main cause was and the loss of forests in their overwintering grounds in Mexico. Recent studies suggest it is actually a long term problem due to the increasing use of planting of genetically engineered, herbicide-resistant corn and soybeans in the Midwest — and the associated huge increase in herbicide spraying has killed off the native milkweeds historically found in abundance in and around farmers’ fields, removing a tremendous amount of monarch habitat. Added to that we have suburban sprawl, this takes away 2.2 million acres of habitat a year.
What can gardeners do to help? You can make your landscape friendly to monarchs throughout their life-cycle by creating places to lay eggs, sip nectar, or find shelter. Plant milkweed the only plant the caterpillars will eat. Be sure and plants flowers to feed the Monarchs once they become adults. They love nectar rich flowers like asters, black-eyed Susan, purple cone-flowers and zinnias. Make sure the butterflies have a place to drink. Put out a dish of damp sand or dig a patch of bare soil and keep it moist. Consider being a Monarch Waystation. Go organic and minimize your use of pesticides. Pesticides kill the beneficial insects along with the pests. Here is a good article on beneficial insects, http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/meet-beneficial-insects
For a local source of milkweed try Joshua’s Native plants. He has pesticide free Milk weed in one gallon pots.
Here are three great sources from which I gleaned information for this post and where you can learn more about saving the Monarchs:
http://texasbutterflyranch.com/about-the-texas-butterfly-ranch/
http://monarchwatch.org/bring-back-the-monarchs/
Hi Laurin!
I just started following your blog, and it is helping me already. Thank you. As a novice gardener with a huge backyard and some dead plants that did not survive this Houston winter I’m in the market to buy new plants. So I would love to buy some plants to attract butterflies. But googling milkweed informed me that it is highly toxic. I have a 3-year old daughter, and I wouldn’t be comfortable planning toxic plants Any advice to attracted the monarch butterflies is greatly appreciated.
Thank you, Ramona
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Hi Ramona, I am so happy that you like the blog! The links at the bottom of today’s post will help you with more information. The caterpillars only eat Milkweed. Perhaps there is a place to plant it out of the reach of your daughter. Or you can plant nectar plants for the butterflies.
“For starters, the larvae (caterpillars) of monarch butterflies eat ONLY milkweed, this is why the monarch butterfly is dubbed the ‘milkweed butterfly’. The larvae stage is the only stage of the monarch butterfly that feeds on milkweed; there is something in milkweed that allows the caterpillar to grow and keep all of the vitamins needed to transform into a beautiful butterfly. In turn, the adult butterflies consume all sorts of different things including nectar, water and even liquids from some of the fruits we consume. If you are looking to attract monarch butterflies to your backyard, simply plant a few fruit-bearing trees along with plenty of flowers and you should definitely have yourself a back yard full of monarch butterflies. They especially like to drink from mushy slices of banana, oranges and watermelon. There are special butterfly feeders you could buy that are colored like a flower and come with special sugar you mix in water to make food for them to eat.” -Monarch Butterfly. Com
Happy Gardening,
Laurin
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