A little story how I got hooked on butterfly gardening:
In 2005 I attended a Secret Garden tour in the next town.
One of the gardens had a monarch butterfly garden.
There was a woman there with info
on how to get started on butterfly gardens.
She had a table set up with all the stages of monarch breeding and the plants they need
for laying eggs, nutrition, etc. She also had handout sheets on how to get started.
I came home and asked my husband if he would make
yet another raised flower garden area for me.
And that was that. I went to the garden center
and got all the plants I needed to start my monarch garden.
Last fall, one of my sons helped me increase the garden size.
This year my garden fit the standards for me to register it with the monarch organization.
You can find more info at monarchwatch.org
Below you will find photos of my garden and
photos of some of the stages of the monarch butterfly.

Perennials currently in my butterfly garden: Butterfly Flower (Asclepias tuberosa), Butterfly Flower (Asclepias incarnata), Bee Balm (Monarda), Butterfly Bush (Buddleia), Gay Feather (Liatris), Purple Coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) Salvia, and Veronica (Speedwell)

Annuals: Zinnias, Lantana, Cosmos, and Salvia

Toward the end of August, I will be tagging the monarchs that I release. I ordered the recovery tags from monarch.org. I will fill in all the data needed and then send them a copy which they will enter on their computer system. If one of my butterflies is recovered in Mexico, they will enter the data number on the tag and notify me that it was recovered.
Then there will be a certificate online for me to print out for my records stating where the butterfly was released from and when and how many miles it traveled and what day it was recovered.

The following info was taken from monarchwatch.org: "Adults in summer generations live from two to five weeks. Each year, the final generation of Monarchs, which emerges in late summer and early fall, has an additional job: to migrate to their overwintering grounds, either in central Mexico for eastern Monarchs or in California for western Monarchs. Here they survive the long winter until conditions in the United States allow them to return to reproduce. These adults can live up to eight or nine months."

My Monarch butterfly garden

Monarch on a Butterfly Flower milkweed plant (Asclepias Incarnata) in my garden


My garden is registered with Monarchwatch.org


An egg laid by a Monarch (small white dot on plant leaf)
Eggs usually hatch about 4 days after they are laid


Monarch Caterpillar


Cats are chomping away


2 Monarchs and a chrysalis in my butterfly cage


More Chrysalis.. the dark one on the right will hatch soon


A monarch in his chrysalis getting ready to emerge


A monarch emerging from his chrysalis


Male --the black spots on each hindwing
determine that it's a male



Female monarch on Butterfly Flower (Asclepias tuberosa)


Female monarch on Oriental Lily

2 photos of a Female monarch on a bouquet of flowers from my garden


Monarch on a Teddy Bear Sunflower


Monarch(raised by my friend Gail) on a bouquet


My first Monarch tagged in 2007

Click the Monarch to see my 2010 Monarch Records.