Got milkweed? Monarchs still need your help

[Judi Lynn]

Got milkweed? Monarchs still need your help
By David Suzuki | April 6, 2016



Three years ago, the eastern monarch butterfly population plummeted to 35 million, a drop of more than 95 per cent since the 1990s. More than a billion milkweed plants, which monarchs depend on for survival, had been lost throughout the butterfly's migratory range -- from overwintering sites in Mexico to summer habitat in Canada.

We needed more milkweed in the ground, quickly. But many provinces and states listed the plant as "noxious," and few nurseries and garden centres carried local "weeds."

A lot has changed in three years. The David Suzuki Foundation launched its #gotmilkweed campaign in April 2013 to encourage Toronto residents to plant milkweed in yards and on balconies. Foundation volunteer Homegrown Park Rangers also planted milkweed in local parks and schoolyards. The Ontario government pulled the plant from its naughty list and media stories about the monarchs' plight took flight.

By winter 2015, the #gotmilkweed campaign had inspired more than 10,000 milkweed plantings in Toronto, with another 11,000 people across the country pledging to help monarchs via the Monarch Manifesto. This week, the 2016 #gotmilkweed campaign launched, offering milkweed plants in Toronto and Montreal and seed packets for the rest of the country. As author and urban gardening guru Lorraine Johnson noted, these and other campaigns have made milkweed the hottest native plant on the market.

More:
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/david-suzuki/2016/04/got-milkweed-monarchs-still-need-your-help?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rabble-news+%28rabble.ca+-+News+for+the+rest+of+us%29

[jonno99]

1. Yes - our front garden has #gotmilkweed! nt

[JonathanRackham]

2. Planting on balconies?

Who'd of thunk? Cool idea.

I've broken open pods and scattered the seeds in areas already populated by other weeds and underutilized by anything else.

Milkweed isn't that bad a looking weed either.

[NCjack]

3. I found milkweed growing in my yard, unrealized by me until I saw Monarchs land on its flowers.

Always previously, I had mowed it close and destroyed the flowers. So, I have now surrounded it with pavers to protect it and let it produce flowers. Also, my wife plans to transplant some to flower boxes on our deck and to our wildflower bed (30 ft. x 30 ft.) seeded with a wildflower mix for hummingbirds and butterflies. Look for milkweed in your yard -- you may already have some.

[MoonchildCA]

4. I have my pack of seeds stratifying in my refrigerator, as we speak.

Another two weeks to go. It's the first time I've done that--hope it works.

[northoftheborder]

5. Have plants ready to plant, also Butterfly weed.

[ffr]

6. Yup, second year sprouts coming up strong and healthy

I planted about 80 seeds in my back yard last year not knowing it takes at least until their second year for the plants to produce flowers. Planted the other 20 at relative's houses throughout the West. The tallest ones of all of them grew to about eight inches tall. The first year plants are delicious to predators, so rabbits and others ate up just about all of what I had planted.

I also found some growing wild along a roadside that I dug up and replanted in my yard last fall. They were being mowed down by weed control, probably for fire prevention purposes. The plants didn't like being dug up and appeared to have died, but they didn't.

Right now I have eight second year spouts (from the seeds I planted) already growing with nice spear shaped leaves with white sap veins and four ginormous red sprouts coming up at various spots above the replanted tubers. My relatives say they've only seen three come up thus far, similar in appearance to my second yearlings.

I'm thinking there's a very high probability of flowering plants in my back yard this year.

All of mine are native to the region Asclepias speciosa (Showy) milkweeds, miniatures of this.


My property is 100% insecticide & herbicide free. Found that it's best for their survival to pen the plants in with square chicken wire cylinder shaped enclosures.

[ffr]

9. Correction. More sprouts keep appearing each day.

Over 40 sprouts from the replanted tubers. All four I planted in various areas survived. They're like potatoes. Sprouts everywhere!

I promised to split next year's tubers and give them to some relatives. More diversity. More cross-pollination.

Can't wait to see this year's results!

[NickB79]

7. Yes, the seedlings I grew last year are resprouting in my prairie garden out back

600 sq. ft of lawn converted to a shortgrass prairie restoration last year. 30 different species of native flowers and grasses, mostly ones I grew myself from seed I collected in local prairie remnants or larger prairie restorations around the county.

Eventually I plan on expanding it to several thousand sq. ft, since I have acreage to work with.

[yourpaljoey]

8. You bet!