Asclepias incarnata 'Cinderella'

#wildlifewednesday #monarch #butterfly

#swamptastic #hostplant #midwesternnative

#wildlifewednesday #wasp this is one BIG wasp

Love these mud dauber wasps! #exoskeletal

#swamp-milkweed #swampmilkweed #native

@gjones thank you. The rest of my swamp milkweed is really stunted from the drought. By the lake it is a swamp so they are doing fine.

Pretty Monarch💕

#milkweed #native #midwesternnative #prettyinpink

Huge Cicada Killer Wasp.

Ouch! That guy looks like he could hurt!😳

@Susanandsteve lucky only the females have stingers. They are pretty docile, but I give them lots of space. The size alone is scary.

@gjones those are new to Minnesota in the last 10 years or so. New residents. 🤣 They are 1.5 inches long. The first time I saw one 3 years ago I ran inside the house and did not come outside for 2 hrs. I was scared of that wasp. It took me awhile to finally find out what it was. At work there is a community of them behind the building I work at.

#swampmilkweed #prettyinpink

#swampmilkweed #milkweed #native #midwesternnative

@gjones they are fairly easy to attract. No one around me has milkweed. I have swamp milkweed everywhere in my hard because it is so pretty when it flowers. I wish I could attract more swallowtails. I really like the black ones. I planted lots of dill and fennel. I only got one caterpillar that I saw anyway. I get lots of painted ladies too. Not as many this year.

Beautiful, mine are full of alphids 😭😢

@littlelisa so are mine. This one is in a rain garden so the water keeps the aphids down some.

Very nice Annette. 😍

Beautiful 💕🐝💕

Great shot! 👍🏻

@philstalder @gjones @debs69 @suzieshadow1227gmailcom thank you. I saw a male monarch chase this butterfly away from his patch of milkweed. The swallowtail came right back.

#seedsaving #seedcollecting. I am very fond of my swamp milkweed. This is a quart jar of seeds stratifing over the winter.

What is the other medium in the jar layered with the seeds?

@KariSamuel sand and water. It is easier to separate the seeds from sand.

Now I know why I was getting holes in my seed pods.

Chomp, chomp, chomp! The price we pay for having more wonderful butterfly life this year. Shame we can’t have it both ways 🥴

I have four Monarch Caterpillars on my Milkweed right now, and I’ve already released to brand new Monarchs into the wild, I just love them, and am so happy that I’ve seen so many more caterpillars and butterflies this year!

@hbaker4 I have seen some monarch roosts this fall. I have not had that in atleast 10+ years. I used to get 50-100 monarchs roosting on my maple trees in the fall.

@gjones. I just enjoy swamp milkweed so much. I have tried growing other milkweed from seed with no luck. (Other than common) I can grow swamp milkweed so easy. I get so many seeds that it is becoming kind of a weedy plant. Good thing they do not spread by rhizomes.

Mine didn’t bloom this year. And the monarch caterpillars have eaten every leaf off of it.

It is great to have caterpillars even if they devoured your plant. Good thing they are a vigorous plant. More for next year. I could mail you a seed pod from one of mine. I have lots @ambitiouswolf

@gjones thank you. I planted other milkweed seeds which did not germinate so I decided I will only grow swamp milkweed. There is some common milkweed that the other milkweed caterpillars get. They are brown with spiky hairs. I forgot the name.

@columbiariver yes. They like them. I remember back in the mid 1990's we used to have hundreds of monarchs in our maple trees in the fall at night. I miss those days. I remember if you stood under a crab apple tree in the spring the bees were so loud . I miss them too. Now I have to buy Mason bees to get fruit. Lucky I get bumblebees later.

Monarch caterpillar

I have lots of flies on my milkweed this year.