Discovery Journal

I will locally be giving away extra milkweed seeds. These are the seeds I will have available and information about them for those who may be interested.

Milkweed seeds usually require cold-moist stratification (CMS) for good germination. This means they are best planted outside in fall or winter, allowing nature to perform the cold-moist stratification for you. You can simulate CMS with a refrigerator following certain processes, but I have never done this, so please be sure to research CMS methods for milkweed if you do not plan to plant in the fall/winter.

While the cardinal flower is a favorite of the hummingbirds, this monarch was not interested in its nectar. However, it sure made a pretty resting spot when a tired male needs to take a break from patrolling his territory.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail made an appearance, visiting the Purple Coneflower

On our morning walk, we happened to see a Hummingbird Clearwing taking nectar from a Swamp Milkweed near the pond. While we have seen the Snowberry Clearwing (Hemaris diffinis) several times this year, this is the first Hummingbird Clearwing (Hemaris thysbe) sighting of the year. I thought this might be a good opportunity to illustrate how to differentiate the two species.

Butterfly activity is up lately. Here are some of the visitors I have been seeing in the backyard and at the pond a few blocks away.

Last year, we added two native Buttonbushes to our side yard and they are proving to be a huge success.

There is a lot of information out there about attracting Eastern Black Swallowtails with host plants in the carrot family like carrots, parsley, dill, and fennel. Sometimes the invasive Queen Anne's lace is mentioned. However, none of these plants are native. The Eastern Black Swallowtail is a native butterfly, so what did caterpillars eat before we brought our garden plants across the ocean?

A squash vine borer was seen seeking nectar at swamp milkweed in the rain garden. Squash vine borers are native but are frequently considered garden pests because they can completely decimate plants in the squash family.

Now that summer has really kicked in and the prairie wildflowers are in full bloom, the snowberry clearwing has been a regular visitor to our backyard. Clearwing moths are frequently referred to as hummingbird moths because of their ability to hover over flowers as they seek nectar. Visually, they resemble a cross between a hummingbird and a bumble bee.