cwhitt said:I had no idea growing milkweed could so complicated. I have memories of seeing it just growing wild.
Me too!
That's exactly how I remember it and really hadn't given it much thought until three Augusts ago I spied 18 Monarch cats, half grown, devouring the last three leaves and stems of two Tropical MW plants planted near the paper box on my newspaper route. I asked the owner if I could take and raise them as "I knew where there was plenty of Milkweeds for them to eat!"
The first patch I drove to had been mowed down by State HWY crews and a second had all yellowed. The stand by a retention pond near my house had been sprayed with weed killer and a fallow field had become a parking lot. The nursery that had two large Swamp Milkweeds still for sale could not verify that the plants had not been treated in some way.
It is then I remembered that Sallyg had mentioned that she grew Common Milkweed so I called her and we harvested just enough MW from her untreated plants to see those 18 fat, healthy, forming 'j's and becoming that incredibly beautiful chryssalis and emrge into the Migration!
It was then I vowed my Scarlett O"Hara vow that no Monarch that came anywhere near me would ever go hungry again!
Chip Taylor of Monarch Watch estimates that 6,000 acres of Monarch/Milkweed habitat is lost every day in North America.
