Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: "Monarch Waystation" Butterfly Plant Seed Certification Info, 1 by beckygardener

beckygardener wrote:
Hi ya'll!

I was pleased to see that I am not losing any more of my cats to diseases. That happens every year and it is so frustrating! It looks like I will have another 4 more going into their chrysalis soon.

I don't know if I told you, but I work at a school with exceptional needs students. We have a number of butterfly gardens around our school hosted by teachers, parents, and students. Our class created our own Monarch and Eastern Black Swallowtail gardens. And we're also hosting GF with a passion vine. We've been seeing lots of butterflies lately and eggs everywhere! The students are so excited. We are raising about 20 Monarch cats currently. Our students are enjoying this activity. (This is what got me started with butterfly gardening to begin with!) It's so touching to see the look on the children's faces and the gentleness the students exhibit when handling and caring for these beautiful crawling and winged creatures! They get so excited!! We're teaching the next generation appreciation for creatures great and small and all about the amazing world we live in! What fun we have!!!!

Here's a photo of one of the male monarchs I released (at my home) and a female that is hanging around my yard laying her eggs. When I put the male on the milkweed next to her, she never even fluttered a wing. No fear of humans! Perhaps she was human raised by someone locally! :-)