-1

Always thought native plants were boring until I saw a monarch lay eggs on my milkweed last week

I planted some swamp milkweed just because it was on sale at the nursery in Austin, and watching a monarch actually use it totally flipped my thinking. Has anyone else had a specific moment where a plant changed your mind about something?

3 comments

3 Comments

jana_jones7d ago

I put in three little clusters of Gregg's mistflower two years ago just because a neighbor gave me cuttings, and by September that patch was absolutely crawling with queen butterflies and painted ladies. It wasn't just one or two bugs, it was like a butterfly convention happening in my tiny flower bed every single afternoon. The way they'd land and completely ignore me while I stood three feet away made me realize these plants were doing something special. Now I'm that person who keeps a trowel in my car trunk so I can rescue scraggly native plants from parking lot edges before the landscapers mow them down.

joel_clark377d ago

Man that's exactly the kind of thing that got me hooked too. Last spring I threw some goldenrod in a corner of my backyard just to fill space and suddenly it was covered in bees and butterflies every afternoon. It sounds dumb but I actually got emotional watching a bumblebee stumble around on those tiny yellow flowers. Now I'm that guy who pulls over on the highway to dig up native plants from construction sites. The whole "boring" thing is such a myth once you see the life they bring.

susanb346d ago

My buddy did the same thing with goldenrod last year and said he spent like 20 minutes just watching a bee get completely drunk on the pollen, stumbling from flower to flower. He called me up all excited like he'd discovered some secret nature channel in his own yard.