milkweed
-
Gathering Milkweed Seeds
The native milkweed plant that has been most successful here is Zizotes Milkweed (Asclepias oenotheroides). I have volunteers popping up all over the place, including this one in the middle of a pathway (photo taken in November 2025). I’d like to try introducing Zizotes Milkweed to the pollinator garden at Park West in Seguin, so Continue reading
-
Updates To The Milkweed Area
When I started constructing this wildlife-friendly garden in 2023, I knew that native milkweed plants would eventually be included (to provide a place for Monarch butterflies to breed). However, I had more pressing priorities to deal with first and I didn’t start adding milkweeds until last year. On the subject of Monarchs, you don’t necessarily Continue reading
-
Native Milkweeds
Milkweeds are the only plant that Monarch butterflies will use to lay their eggs and host their caterpillar larvae. However, Monarchs will feed from a lot of other nectar sources, as will other creatures, and so before planting milkweeds I focused more on building a garden with a variety of food sources to be more generally Continue reading
-
Fostering Monarch Caterpillars
I have at least three kinds of native milkweeds here, and I’m part-way through writing a post to describe them. But in the meantime, this post describes how six almost-ready-to-pupate Monarch caterpillars arrived here for some late-stage foster care. A friend had so many Monarch caterpillars in her garden that they were in danger of Continue reading
-
The First Butterflyweed Flowers
In April 2024 I was lucky to snag three small Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa) plants at a Home Depot giveaway. I planted them in a small area of the garden that I have designated for native milkweeds. In that area I also have Antelope Horns (Asclepias asperula) and Zizotes (Asclepias oenotheroides) milkweed plants. Two of the Continue reading
-
Relocating Caterpillars
Since I last reported finding a Queen caterpillar in my milkweed patch, of course I visited often to see how it (and the plant it was eating) was doing. Over the course of the next two days I realized that there were actually three other Queen caterpillars moving among the milkweed plants. Each was about Continue reading
-
A Queen Caterpillar
I have seen Queen (Danaus gilippus) butterflies here, so it is not surprising to find a caterpillar. Queen caterpillars are very similar in appearance to Monarch caterpillars, and they also use milkweeds as their host plant, so I had to look very closely at this one to know which it was. (Another clue is the Continue reading
-
More Milkweeds, Although Unplanned!
There is a small triangular area at the back of the garden that I have designated for native milkweed plants. Earlier this year I planted seven tiny plants: 4 Antelope Horns Milkweed (Asclepias asperula) and 3 Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa). In addition, I had previously scattered some seed for Zizotes Milkweed (Asclepias oenotheroides) in the area, Continue reading
-
Butterflyweed
Recently, Home Depot had a giveaway of Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa) plants and I was fortunate to be close to one of the participating stores in Houston on the day. So now I have three tiny Butterflyweeds that have joined my milkweed area. I already had four small Antelope-Horns (Asclepias asperula) plants and some seeds of Zizotes Continue reading
-
Native Milkweeds
Milkweeds are the only plant that Monarch butterflies will use to lay their eggs and host their caterpillar larvae. I intentionally did not plant any Milkweeds last year — I was more focused on initially building a more generally wildlife-friendly environment. However, I knew that eventually I would want to include Milkweed plants here. There Continue reading
About Me
Nature Lover.
Inquisitive Observer.
Student Gardener.
I invite you to join me on my journey to convert my sterile (from a nature point of view) new house lot to a healthy and diverse ecosystem, as I make discoveries, mistakes, and hopefully progress. I am not an expert or professional. The project started in February 2023 and the location is Seguin, Texas, USA.
Rewilding My Lot 