Here in southwest Washington we are on the migration route of the western population of the Monarch butterfly. Our Monarchs live here during the summer and then migrate to California for the winter. These butterflies lay their eggs exclusively on Milkweed plants. Milkweed is a perennial plant that uses cardenolides to protect itself from predation. Cardenolides are toxic steroids which have heart arresting properties similar to digitalis, and they taste pretty bad.
Through a trick of evolution, Monarch caterpillars are able to sequester the chemical as they feed on the toxic leaves. The sequestered chemicals make the caterpillars taste awful to birds, wasps and other predatory creatures. When they metamorphose they store the cardenoide in their new wings; since birds go for the wings first. To further exploit their bad taste, they are brightly colored in red-orange and black.
In the past half century Monarch populations have declined precipitously. It’s postulated that this is due to the destruction of milkweed in the landscape. Being a poisonous plant, until recently, few people were willing to share their space with it. Milkweed flowers although small are quite pretty and the Butterflies extend that beauty to other parts of the yard. Milkweed ‘s toxic nature is of limited concern, given the number of other toxic plants in our landscape (Dogbane and Foxglove being two more toxic examples).
One place that has embraced the charms of Milkweed is the Elkton Community Education Center (ECEC) in Elkton, OR. If your travels ever take you anywhere near this destination is worthy of a visit. Here they have an extensive community based Monarch propagation project. They provide jobs for High School students as well as insuring that Milkweed and Monarchs have a place in western Oregon’s future.
The ECEC supports, and is in turn supported by, a community garden producing native landscape plants (including several species of Milkweed), flowers, and produce. The heart of the butterfly program is the Butterfly Pavilion, an enclosed space where visitors can walk among the butterflies and see the insect’s life stages up close.
We visited the center on Labor Day weekend when the town holds its annual festival. During the festival they run an adoption program. This program allows visitors to ‘adopt’ a butterfly. For a small donation to the program, you get to name your animal and release it to join the migration south to California. The packet comes with a certificate and six clay balls surrounding Milkweed seeds for your garden. We also purchased a couple of plants.
Our milkweed seeds have not yet germinated. Given the cold wet winter we had I’m somewhat surprised. The snow managed to freeze a couple of the young plants that I had purchased. But one survived and with another from a local garden center, is growing quite well in one of our front garden beds.
The dear bride found that milkweed has gone main stream and packaged seeds are available from at our local grocer. I ‘ll try to sprout these.
Milkweed takes a bit of work to germinate; they need to be stratified. Stratification is the process of exposing the seeds to cold temperatures prior to planting. This simulates natural winter conditions. First wash the seeds in cold, sterile, water. Distilled water chilled in the refrigerator works great. Then allow the seeds to soak for a day in the refrigerator. After they have soaked rinse them again in the sterile water and mix them with vermiculite. Seal the container and store in the refrigerator for a month. Then plant the vermiculite and the seeds in planting mix. Make sure they are covered by about ¼ inch of potting mix. The seeds should germinate in a couple weeks. When they get to about two inches tall you can then plant them out, as long as the soil temperature is at least 70˚.
Then perhaps after a few years they will provide food for local Monarch caterpillars. They are rather impressive creatures.
Other plants that attract butterflies are Purple Cone Flower (Echinacea purpurea) and Butterfly Bush (Buddleia). Since Butterfly bush grows so well here in the Pacific Northwest, it has a bad reputation. The nannies in Oregon have even banned cultivation of the plant. In spite of bans, it does attract and feed butterflies like few other plants. The down side for gardeners is that this plant must be heavily pruned every year or it will die.
So perhaps stick with Milkweed and Purple Cone flowers.
Milkweed is also a plant to know for bush craft. Don’t eat it— it’s toxic —but the dried stems yield good cordage fibers. And not only is the fluff from the seed pod good for kindling flame but the dried ova are good for catching sparks; they are rumored to even catch the rather cool sparks from flint and steel. As I haven’t had a source of milkweed, I haven’t tried this myself. I’m waiting for my plants to produce seed pods.
So, if you are on the migration routes of the monarch help them out by cultivating Milkweed plants. The plant’s flowers are attractive and the butterflies enhance them even more. Plus, you get to cultivate a toxic weed; what could be better?