For those of you who spotted a few Monarch butterflies in the peony fields, here is what they were looking for. Yes the often despised Milkweed. Here on our farm, we try to avoid removing Milkweed! If you’ve been following the collapse of the Monarch’s, anything we can do to help them is our mission! Normally we have dozens of Monarchs using our pollinator field, but since the drought in Texas/Mexico in 2013 and 2014, there was no food for them to carry out their migration over that great distance. I looked through many Milkweeds and no signs yet! I remember as a kid collecting Monarch caterpillars and wish today I could find a Monarch caterpillar. I’ll keep looking though and inform if I find some. They are just too beautiful to not try and help them!
I just envision in my mind photographing a Monarch atop the Butterfly Weed. Maybe someday! This was one of the toughest wild flowers to grow but finally after a controlled burn in year 3 of establishing our pollinator field, they showed up in year 4. These are another Monarch attractor for its food source. Now that we have a few spots established, they should self seed and expand more. Since I don’t use PhotoShop or Lightroom, at least in our mind we can see a Monarch taking advantage of the Butterfly Weed!