The Nature of Things

Like many gardeners, I grow milkweed because I think it is pretty but mainly for the butterflies. Butterflies of many kinds enjoy sipping from its flowers, but butterflies like the Monarch and the Queen are completely dependent upon it for the nurturing of their larvae.  As we know, the Monarch in particular has been declining in recent years and one of the reasons has been the destruction of milkweed plants by industrial and agricultural development along its migration route across the continent. Throughout the year, the Monarchs flit through my garden and many of them lay their eggs on the milkweed plants there. And soon I find their caterpillars happily munching their way through the leaves of the plants. A heavy crop of caterpillars can completely strip the leaves from a plant in a few days. Through our long growing season, an individual plant may regrow its leaves several times. Nearing the end of the season, the plants develop their feathery seeds which will be spread by the ...

Over the past year, there has been a good bit of publicity and discussion in gardening circles about the efficacy of planting tropical milkweed ( Asclepias curassavica ) in our butterfly gardens as an aid to Monarch and other milkweed butterflies. There has been research that has indicated that this non-native plant might actually be harming these butterflies and urging gardeners to plant native milkweed instead.  For the past several years, the only milkweed that I had found available in local nurseries was the tropical kind, and so I had planted it in my garden where it has thrived. It lives through the winter here, although it generally dies back to the roots, and I usually cut it back several times during the year. Cutting it back supposedly reduces the toxins which may cause problems for butterflies, and, if it isn't cut back, it gets quite spindly and gangly and not very attractive. But the butterflies seemed to like it. Maybe because there wasn't an alternative for them...

Milkweed is well known as the host plant for Monarch and Queen butterflies. It is the only plant that their caterpillars can live on and so it is absolutely essential for their survival. But milkweed not only attracts Monarch and Queen butterflies. It is also a magnet for a somewhat less charismatic insect. Aphids. Here is one of the milkweed plants currently in my garden. All those little yellow bits are aphids, sucking insects which, in a heavy infestation, can devastate a plant. The only thing good that can be said about aphids is that they provide tasty snacks for several predators. Including ladybugs. Here is a member of my ladybug army making quick work of a few aphids on this plant. Ladybugs, like the milkweed itself, come in different colors and color patterns. Here is a different type that is cleaning up this plant. And here is yet another type that has its work cut out for it on this heavily infested plant. Fortunately, it has some allies to help. Though the ladybug army is b...