Milkweed Flowers

I started out the season with a lot of milkweed plants. The went from sprouts to green globes of buds

To pink tinged buds, and

Opening flowers.

The bees love the flowers and often there are more than one bee on each globe in June.

There was one bee that seemed worn out from all the foraging.

The frustrating part of it all this year is that we don’t have any monarchs after those first few that were probably released by local schools. The leaves on the milkweed were pristine without any Monarch caterpillars to eat them. My husband did not like the plants in the front flowerbed to I cut them down over a few days and ate the flowers (they need to be rinsed twice in boiling water to remove the toxicity…and then I ate them in a salad rather than smothering them with butter and eating them hot).

Ten Little Celebrations – June 2017

As I look back over the month, I realize that there was a lot to celebrate.

Home. At the beginning of the month I had just returned home from helping my daughter move from Arizona to Pennsylvania. As usual – returning home was celebrated. I like to travel but coming home again always feels wonderful.

3 box turtles. I didn’t do a lot of hiking in June but was thrilled that it seemed like there were a lot of box turtles around…and I celebrated seeing so many. There were two along the path between Mt. Pleasant and the Patapsco River and the third was in the cemetery at Belmont.

Receiving the Carol Filipczak Award from Howard County Conservancy. Celebrating recognition for volunteering that is love.

Daughter on the east coast. Having my daughter living in the same time zone (rather than in Arizona) is something I am celebrating this month.

Kenilworth Gardens. Lotus, waterlilies, dragonflies, turtles, birds, magnolias…so much to celebrate.

Milkweed flowers. I had so many milkweeds come up in my front flowerbed that I had to cut some of them down….but I cut the globes of flowers first and enjoyed them in a stir fry (after boiling them twice to remove the toxins). Celebrating the taste of wild food!

Peach preserves. Not sure why – but I couldn’t resist it in the grocery store and I am celebrating the decision. I’ve spread it on toast and whisked it into a homemade salad dressing. Yum!

Volunteering at Wings of Fancy. Having butterflies flying around while I’m volunteering at Brookside Gardens…a constant celebration. So beautiful.

CSA. I’m celebrating the fresh veggies from the Gorman Farm Community Supported Agriculture. It’s easy to eat enough veggies when they taste so good!

Photography with summer campers. I am already celebrating the photography with summer campers that I’m doing for the 3^rd time this summer. I’m in the prep stages but am anticipating the flurry of having 15 or so campers (at one time…a total of 5 groups eventually) all enthusiastic about photographing the natural world around them is going to be one of the highlights of the summer.

Our Yard – June 2017

There were a lot of rainy days in May and June – so far – has been relatively cool here in Maryland. The plants seem to be thrilled. I’ve already trimmed the bush beside our garage and it already needs to be trimmed again. My husband parks his car on that side of the garage and is keen for me to do the job ASAP.

The milkweed in the front flowerbed looks great – and there don’t appear to be any more caterpillars on it. Pooh!

I might cut down the plants toward the front of the bed so that the ‘predator’ lights will be more visible to the deer. So far the gizmo has kept them from eating the day lily buds.

The trees are still getting a lot of new leaves. The new maple leaves start out tinged with red.

The tulip poplar leaves are miniature (somewhat streamlined) versions of the larger leaves. Most of the flowers are fading now and the seed mods are forming.

Our oak tree is trimmed up so high (it’s close to the street and the country trimmed it high enough that fire trucks would not be damaged if they needed to come down our street) that I decided to take a picture of a leave that had fallen. The tree has grown a lot since we moved into our house 20 years ago and I like the shade it provides to the front of the house on summer mornings.

Monarch Caterpillars Saga II

It was about 40 degrees on the morning I went out to look for the caterpillars again and decide which milkweed plant to cut (the one with the most caterpillars was my criteria). I didn’t find any caterpillars! I decided to wait a few hours for the temperature to climb a little. By early afternoon it was in the 50s and I found a caterpillar on one of the plants.

It was near the base of one of the leaves, close the stem. I couldn’t tell that it had munched nearby but the caterpillars do go through cycles of eating voraciously and then resting as they develop…and it had been cold during the night.

I carried the fish tank out to the front flower bed. I’d found a glass flower arranger that I planned to use to hold the stalks of milkweed upright and their ends in water.

The stalk turned out to be a little bigger than the hole so I trimmed it around the edges enough for it to fit. Then I took the whole thing back inside and covered it with netting.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the caterpillar becomes active and thrives in my Monarch Caterpillar nursery.

Monarch Caterpillars Saga I

Last weekend, my husband commented that we had milkweed coming up in our front flowerbed (milkweed plants circled in white in the picture below) and I needed to cut it down. Once milkweed is established it comes up year after year from the roots.

I decided to check for Monarch caterpillars on the plants first. Sure enough – I found caterpillars. The first one I found was tiny. I almost didn’t see it. It was less than a quarter of an inch long!

The other two were a little further along. The yellow, black and white stripes typical of Monarch caterpillars were more evident.

I decided I would try raising the caterpillars in an old fish tank that was previously gathering dust in our basement. I’ve cleaned it up and purchased the netting to cover the top. My next post will be about my adventure cutting the milkweed with the caterpillars on it and setting up my Monarch caterpillar nursery. I have plenty of milkweed to nourish the caterpillars until they make their chrysalis. When they hatch – I’ll release the butterflies near a good patch of milkweed so they can lay more eggs and continue their northward journey.