Long listed as threatened, Monarchs unfortunately joined the IUCN Red List of endangered species this year. Statistically only 10% of Monarchs survive to become butterflies, so we collect the eggs that are laid on site and hand raise them, increasing the survival rate of the Hoerr Nursery Monarchs to better than 95%.
In this week's newsletter, we'll give you a virtual tour of our method.
|
|
|
Monarchs lay eggs only on Milkweed plants, since Milkweed is the only thing that Monarch caterpillars can eat.
You'll usually find their eggs on the undersides of the leaves. (Look closely at the middle photograph above, and you'll see an egg at the bottom right of the central leaf.)
For larger, sturdier leaves, we snap off the leaf that the egg is on and bring it with us. For eggs on tender young shoots, we snap off the entire shoot. It takes four days for a monarch egg to hatch after it's been laid, and we don't want the leaves that the eggs are on to dry out.
|
|
|
We keep eggs and the Milkweed leaves that they're on inside of a plastic shoebox, sanitized in advance with a diluted 5-10% bleach solution. The tips of the eggs turn black just before they hatch, and the caterpillars that emerge are really tiny!
|
|
|
The Very Hungry Caterpillars
|
|
|
As the caterpillars grow, we transfer them to a bigger snap lid container, keep them supplied with plenty of fresh, dry milkweed leaves, and clean up their pellets every morning. Opening and closing the box every day provides them with enough fresh air exchange.
If you're trying this at home, note that the boxes that you use should have clear or translucent sides, and they should be kept in a spot where they get exposed to natural light without being in direct sunlight. This keeps the caterpillars in sync with their normal circadian rhythms.
|
|
|
The caterpillars will shed their skin and grow bigger five times. Once they reach their fourth stage, (called an "instar,") we bring them outdoors to our butterfly house, where they live on live Butterfly Milkweed in one gallon pots.
|
|
|
Our perennial garden staff keeps an eye on the butterfly house, releasing the newly emerged Monarch Butterflies once their wings have fully inflated.
The next time you're visiting us, ask a staff person if you can take a peek inside the butterfly house. You'll see the remnants of this season's chrysalises on the ceiling, and hopefully some live caterpillars and chrysalises in transition, as well. If you're very lucky, you might even get to release a Monarch Butterfly yourself!
|
|
We hope that this virtual tour of our Monarch rearing process will inspire you to establish or expand on a butterfly garden of your own, incorporating both Milkweed plants and nectar plants. Monarch habitat is at an all time low, and they need all the help they can get. Every bit of pollinator habitat makes a difference!
If you're raising butterflies yourself, we'd love to hear from you! Reply to this email, and let us know how it's going this year.
|
|
|
Aug 15th-Sept 5th:
Select Trees, 25% off
|
|
|
Choose from the following varieties:
Maples
Armstrong Gold Maple
Autumn Blaze Maple
Crimson King Maple
Crimson Sunset Maple
Redpointe Maple
Urban Sunset Maple
Crabapples
Red Jewel Crabapple
Tina Crabapple
Ornamental Cherries
Double Weeping Cherry
Pink Snow Showers Weeping Cherry
Snow Fountain Weeping Cherry
Miscellaneous Trees
Autumn Gold Ginkgo
Skyline Honeylocust
Exclamation Planetree
Colonial Spirit Elm
Fruit Trees
Apples, 2n1
Firestorm Honeycrisp Apple
Jonagold Apple
Jonathan Apple
Red Delicious Apple
Winesap Apple
|
|
|
|
|
