I planted milkweed some years back which has only really begun to thrive in the last couple years.
It’s a beautiful and bushy looking plant with large shiny leaves and attractive flowers. It may be considered a weed but it is very pleasing to behold. Many different insects are drawn to it at different times in its maturing cycle. It seems to support a whole host of species. Ants, bees, slugs, flies, wasps, monarchs and even slugs all seem to gather from it.
I have a bush of it next to the studio door. The fragrance of the blooms is intoxicating. If I were a cologne designer I would make one smell like milkweed. It would be called Monarch. Just can’t get enough of that smell.
I feel very privileged when I watch the monarch caterpillars. I have yet to see the cocooning. I have seen the emerged butterflies on occasion.
Yes, it is the dead of winter on the prairies but SUMMER IS COMING.
