Milkweed and Monarchs

At first, they seemed harmless, those Common Milkweed plants in the 4' x 8' perennial bed. An occasional sprout would show up in the grass during my first few years here. And one year, the aphids attacked and sucked the life out of the whole bunch. Maybe that's when they became interested in taking over, some kind of milkweed evolution took place and activated an extensive root expansion and seed propagation program.

Just a few days ago, as I surveyed the milkweed-conquered territories of my yard, I thought about asking a master gardener for help in eradicating the plants. You might be wondering why I let them take over, while I am wondering how the previous owners/gardeners managed to keep them confined. My turn from accepting and managing the wily milkweed to considering its removal had a lot to do with the reason they're here in the first place. This year there are so few Monarch butterflies in my yard.

Let me take a moment to partially explain the expansion of the Common Milkweed into new territories around my house. The Monarchs lay their eggs on the tender leaves of new sprouts, or of older plants if no little ones are available. Thus, the onward march from that tenacious underground root system, springing up into baby plants would very quickly result in those plants being host to Monarch eggs. Yes, I did pull many of those and keep them alive in a vase until the eggs hatched (but the roots didn't go away). But there were many I let stand.

So, when the butterflies didn't return, the reason-for-being of the Milkweed for me, it led me to think I could regain some sense of order in my garden. I am fortunate in my neighbors because they have not strongly urged milkweed removal (yet)!

Yesterday, while harvesting a few tomatoes and some lovely raspberries, I spotted a mama Monarch (!) fluttering from plant to plant stopping to lay eggs (this is about a month later than usual). When I moved closer to watch I saw that her wings were faded, even nearly clear in spots, as a result of the long flight here from Texas. Sometimes she flopped over just a bit, but then righted herself and kept looking for the right plants in the tumult of my verdant gardens (everything does seem to grow exuberantly). Her doggedness over that long journey, finding my yard because her ancestors were born here, made me rethink how little effort by comparison I need to exert to keep these milkweed plants.

The Monarch butterfly population (state butterfly of Minnesota by the way) is at an all-time record low. This makes me sad. I've been hand-rearing some caterpillars every year so I get to see them transform via chrysalis into butterfly. Butterfly birthdays are wonderful, and I've been here for a lot of them. I just don't know how many more years we have.

For more information on Monarchs: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/index.html; http://www.monarchlab.org/