milkweed
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Trying Milkweeds In Another Place
For two years I have been trying to get native milkweeds established in a patch at the far end of the garden. I’ve had little success, perhaps because the soil there is particularly prone to erosion when there are heavy rains. Certainly the plants that did grow there never got to be big enough to… Continue reading
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Volunteer Milkweed Plants
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 at different times… Continue reading
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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.
