So, I take Pup Pup for a walk most mornings, and if I get up in time, we take a nice long stroll (at puppy pace) around the lake. The park district has added a large number of plantings on the edges of the water, apparently for goose control, though I thought it was just to make it a more natural environment.
Among the things they've planted is milkweed. Milkweed is an unusual looking plant, if you've never seen one. I've got three in my back yard, much to the chagrin of some of my neighbors. I like them because they're different looking, and in addition to having a lovely fuzzy pink flower, they attract monarch butterflies. For me, that alone is worth having a milkweed grow in my garden.
Well, at one end of the lake, the path goes through the middle of a thicket of wild flowers and bushes. It's really quite lovely, with something ALWAYS blooming in there. This morning, as Pup Pup and I were going through, I was suddenly enveloped in a glorious, sweet scent. I stopped, looked around, back tracked.
Lo and behold, I was in the middle of a HUGE patch of blooming milkweed. Who knew they smelled so good?
Did you know that Milkweed is the only plant that Monarchs will eat? Our big school fundraiser last year had Monarchs as the theme and we learned a lot about it. My friend's mother has 30 acres of milkweek at her house and catches and catelogs Monarchs. When they get to Mexico, volunteers take the dead butterflys and they have actually traced a few of them here to little Big Rapids Michigan. Sort of fun isn't it?
ReplyDeleteWhy, yes, as it happens, I did know that. Our local public library has the caterpillars in tanks for the kids to watch every spring, and we grown ups learn a lot about them there.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have anything so exciting as them being traced back to us, though! I'll bet that 30 acres is quite a beautiful sight!
OH, and I found a fourth one sprouting the other day! Works for me!