Earlier this summer I went to LA to help my daughter get settled in her new cottage in Culver City. While I was there we decided to go to a local nursery and pick up some plants to add to her garden. At the nursery I noticed they were selling Milkweed, the larval food for Monarch butterflies. I pointed it out to my daughter Lauren and she got excited about attracting butterflies so we bought one. A month later she called me ecstatic because there was a Monarch butterfly on her plants and it had even flown into her house. The next day
it came back again and I said,” I bet it’s going to lay eggs on your Milkweed. Milkweed or Asclepias is the only food for Monarch caterpillars so it’s amazing they can even find the plants -it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. So the butterfly did lay eggs on the milkweed and this gave Lauren new commitment to the cause of Monarchs. She collected seeds from her own milkweed plant and quickly germinated them. The seeds have become plants which are growing and almost ready to go to their new homes around LA. She has found a new cause and is calling it the Monarch Mission. She wants to get milkweed growing in gardens all over LA and bring back Monarchs to the area in numbers. Today she texted me a picture of the first chrysalis in her garden. How cool is that. Now she gets to wait for the butterfly to emerge. This is why I love turning people on to gardens. She’s experienced the magic and is now going to share it with the world. More later!
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