Milkweed Flowers

June drawing to a close has always been a special time of year.  Thirty-four times it marked the change from working in the classroom to ten weeks of vacation or a summer job.  For many, Milkweed is little more than a roadside weed.  Its unique connection to the Monarch butterfly makes it an incredibly important native plant.  Our retirement land was purchased more than one quarter of a century ago and its wildly rural nature placed us in close contact with both the butterfly and its food source.  Memory of its powerful scent could not go unnoticed.

The difference in the color of the open flowers remains an unanswered question.  Many are close to white colored while others show a rose pink.  One possible explanation could be the age of the open flower but we see both colors on plants with both open flowers and unopened buds.  Perhaps this issue is similar to the variation in human eye or hair color.  It just happens.

Several years ago we started squash seeds indoors well ahead of the last frost date.  When these plants were moved outside there was a long period when no blossoms were pollinated.  The newly opened flowers on the milkweed were a powerful magnet drawing in all of the bees.  Our squash simply had to wait until these flowers were finished.  Early yesterday morning when I first saw open flowers, a perfect Fritillary butterfly was finding food there.  When I returned in the afternoon with a camera the bees had taken possession of these flowers.  The only butterflies seen then were being chased away by selfish bees.

It comes as no surprise to those people that know us that we meddle in the natural order.  As Fall approaches we see huge numbers of Milkweed plants with no leaves as they die down.  This is at the exact time when the caterpillars need a food source.  These developing creatures eat only Milkweed leaves and they are scarce at that time.  Milkweed is an amazing plant.  When it has a visit from a lawn mower, it simply regrows.  We mow two large fields intending to end mowing in July so that the new growth will have young leaves for the caterpillars.  This sounds like a good plan but some of the plants that we cut down are feeding new caterpillars.  We do have large areas that never see the mower so we are not killing all of them.  This working with nature is never easy.

Mating Monarchs

This is not a photograph you see everyday.  In fact it's amazing that I got this picture at all.  Ed was mowing the area  by the bluebird houses that I can see from my kitchen window.  He noticed a pair of mating Monarch butterflies on a milkweed plant.  He stopped mowing and  called me so I could see the coupled pair.  Over the years he has seen this many times back where we have acres of milkweed growing, but this was my first time!  I thought it might be rude and insensitive to get the camera to record this event, but I went back in the house to get the camera deciding if they were still there I would give it a shot.  I slowly approached being respectful and quiet but when I got almost close enough, they flew away.  I snapped a picture anyway pointing the camera in their general direction.  Ed had been watching me and was positive that I got a blurry picture of nothing. I  can't believe my luck!  This is not part of a video!  It has not been enhanced, cropped, centered or in any way altered.

Wildlife centered gardening can be a bit tricky.  We leave the milkweed so that the mating butterflies have plenty of leaves on which to lay their eggs.  However Bluebirds and Tree Swallows like to be next to an area of short vegetation so they can fly directly into their nest.  One box that can't be seen in this picture is currently empty.  Nearly grown  Tree Swallow babies  are in the box you can see.  Frequent  feeding trips need to be made by the adults.  I watched and they swoop around the milkweed plants and into the hole in the nest box with ease.

Milkweed flowers are buzzing with  bees.  The scent of the plants is intoxicating!  I guess for the Monarchs it all comes together to put them "In The Mood"!

A Monarch Indeed!!

 We have always had a thing for butterflies.  From the very beginning when we moved here we began to encourage the milkweed growing here.  The fragrant blossoms attract many kinds of butterflies, but of course the Monarch is king. Click Here to go back to 2008! 
 

This far North however it is not the fragrant blossoms that really attract the Monarchs.  What they are eagerly  looking for is some nice green milkweed leaves on which to lay their eggs. Ed carefully mows the plants in stages so that we have new milkweed plants when the butterflies need them.

We have been waiting and watching for the Monarch's return. Whenever an orange and black  blur goes by we wonder if it is a Monarch.  Sometimes we see what we want to see!  Yesterday a Monarch stopped to feed on this freshly opened Liatris plant.  There was no doubt this time and it was a girl.  No, there is no picture of the butterfly, but as of July 19, 2016 we can indeed say a Monarch has been seen here at the Stone Wall  Garden and inside the square at that!

 Every  Monarch we see is a joy and the same will be true of the caterpillars.

Where Are The Monarchs ?

Our nearby river, the flat muddy Unadilla, is a south flowing stream.  A diminishing finger of bedrock ridge sends the river on a westward loop here.  Migrating flyers ignore this jog in the river and fly directly over us.  Once a National Guard cargo plane on a training flight below the ridge line flew directly over our home at a frighteningly low altitude as it followed the straight line down the valley. Geese and Monarch butterflies provide more pleasant visual experiences as they migrate directly over us.

Our fields of milkweed stand ready for the Monarchs that enjoy summer here.  This year they have been almost completely absent from our place.  An occasional tattered individual has been seen dining on an Echinacea flower.  The milkweed flowers are long past but the Monarch needs only its leaves to receive their eggs.  All is ready but for some reason the butterflies are not here.

This stand of milkweed is growing in an area that I mow.  It was last mowed mid July so that the milkweed would re sprout growing tender young leaves and late flowers.  The young leaves are intended for use by the butterflies, but the second flush of flowers is intended for me.  I find their fragrance deliciously sweet and I have a longstanding personal connection with this plant.  For many years I would enjoy the first week of my summer vacation from school while surrounded by newly opened milkweed flowers.  Now the flowers remind me of wonderful first days of summers spent free of employment.

The many weeks of rainy weather no doubt impacted the northern Monarch migration.  It will soon be time for the summer butterflies to lay the eggs that will develop into the young ones that make the southern migration.  With so few butterflies seen here we will likely not find any caterpillars or cocoons on our milkweed plants.  Our last chance to see Monarchs this year will be during the migration when topography works to funnel the fliers directly over us.