Monday, November 29, 2010

One of the reasons we love gardening

Since I started planting milkweeds in my garden I have an over abundance of monarch butterflies visiting and laying eggs.

The results are lots of caterpillars eating the milkweed to the ground. I always wonder where do all the caterpillars go? These critters are very good at finding hiding places.

This pupa attached itself to the fence in the vegetable garden. I been keeping an eye on it for a few days.

I didn’t get to see the actual transformation to a beautiful monarch butterfly but Sunday I found this monarch nearby getting ready to fly and an empty cocoon.

7 comments:

Ami said...

Wow, that is a beautiful monarch butterfly! I also often wonder where those cats went after they chew my milkweed to the bare sticks. Only I have not found much butterflies visiting my garden. I need to observe more, or plant more butterfly plants.

Darla said...

It takes the Monarch less than a minute to emerge from the chrysalis so you gotta be staring at it once it turns black.

SiestaSister said...

Your post reminded me that I needed to check if the monarch in my courtyard had hatched. Not yet, probably within a few hours. This one is hanging from a succulent cutting. It is amazing where you find them.

Antique ART Garden said...

Very nice, we have had a large abundance of butterflies in SC as well. They really make a garden...sort of top it off.

Susan said...

Great shots, Rusty. I've always wondered where they go, too. I guess I need to get outside and look a litle harder.

Enid said...

Beatiful! I love that too. Since I have more plants, there are more wildlife visitors on my garden.

Li Moreira said...

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I invite you to see mine:
http://suculentasecia.blogspot.com/