Besides bluebirds, the most welcomed guests in my backyard are Monarch butterflies. They are like miniature, fine-art paintings flitting from bush to bush and flower to flower. They are magnificent creatures and they are threatened. Their fiercest enemies happen to be human beings, who are rapidly destroying meadows and the milkweed plants that Monarchs must have in order to survive. One of my biggest beefs is with the hoity-toity Conservation Easement Program, a government sham which takes tax money from ordinary citizens and gives it to wealthy landowners in order to turn fallow fields into fescue, which is of little or no value to wildlife and is singularly responsible for the rapid decline of the Monarch butterflies and many ground nesting birds, like quail.
What can we do? Plant things that help butterflies, like milkweed and butterfly bushes.
Most commercially available Butterfly Bushes are variations of Buddleia Davidii. These bushes are hardy and can survive temperatures down to minus 20 degrees. They grow between 6 and 15 feet tall. They smell heavenly.
I came home last night and there were four, gorgeous Monarchs feeding on the sweet nectar of our Butterfly Bush. It seems to be their preferred source of nectar. Butterfly Bushes attract and sustain butterflies but it’s not a plant the caterpillars can eat in order to survive. Therefore, we planted a milkweed bush nearby where the females can lay their eggs. Milkweed is the only plant that can sustain a Monarch caterpillar until it pupates and develops into a butterfly. We hope that a Monarch will find it and lay her eggs there.
If you don’t have a Butterfly Bush, go out and buy a couple. Plant them now and they will begin drawing Monarchs and other butterflies and nectar feeding insects as soon as next spring. Plant milkweed, too. If Monarch butterflies are to survive, they need our help.