…for Monarchs?
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The garden committee is also applying for free milkweed plants from Monarch Watch and will be planting a pollinator garden next to the south entrance. The pollinator garden should qualify as a Monarch Waystation once we get it established.
Anyone who gets milkweed seeds should research the ways to get them to germinate as they usually overwinter before germinating outside. The roots need 6-8 weeks to establish before the first hard freeze in order to survive winter.
The milkweed species native to Kansas are beautiful!
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I understand Milkweed can be a pretty bad allergin. Gardeners Beware! Milkweed Toxicity - UF/IFAS Extension Monroe County
That article references toxicity when touching a substance produced by the plant. So you’d have to be pruning the plants and coming in close contract for any reaction.
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Hi! I’m good friends with the guy who runs The Hatchery Butterfly Farm in town and I’m sure he would gladly inform us about milkweed and the monarch butterfly if we wanted. Let me know if that sounds like something worth pursuing!
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That would be wonderful!
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We’ve been wanting to plant some at our house for next year. Would love to do this and hear from a local expert!
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As someone who grew up on the farm, my reaction to this is… why in the name of all that is holy would you want more milkweeds?
Massive changes in agricultural methods (and general displacement by humans) over the past few decades are resulting in the loss of species we didn’t previously think possible. The monarch butterfly is now an endangered species, specifically. Even the Eastern cottontail populations are in danger based upon research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln I heard presented a few years ago - habitat interruption combined with the appearance of RHDV-2 in the USA.
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Why not? Native milkweed is not invasive nor noxious.
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the milkweed that monarchs look for is not the typical milkweed that I remember having on the farm all the time. It was probably there, but I remember a different species.
That said, a former coworker was raising monarchs for a time and he always had a heck of time getting milkweed to grow at his place. I remember always giving him a hard time because it was seen as a nuisance and seemed to grow anywhere and everywhere when I was a kid.
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Yeah, there are many different kinds of milkweeds and I get it with respect to monarchs and such. I just remember cursing the kinds of milkweeds that grow in the fields because they are really hard to kill, especially with conventional, non-herbicide, means.
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