My Yard's Full of Milkweed!!!

Additional inspection of my yard has yeilded a number of Milkweed species!  I really can't believe it.  I must assume that the previous owner had a butterfly garden of some sort in her yard.  I couldn't be more thrilled.  Below are some photos of the Milkweed species that I have found in my yard.  All are native to Texas.

(Possibly Sand Milkweed plants by my watering hose.)

(Blue Vine Milkweed running along my garden fence.)

(This plant oozed Milky White when I pinched a leaf off.  Checking to see if the caterpillars will eat it or not.  That's the real test to see if a plant is truly Milkweed or not.)

With this much Milkweed in my yard, I can only surmise that the previous owner planted most, if not all of it.  If that's the case, I'm happy to continue her work.

As you read in my previous Blog entry, we lost a lot of caterpillars to Fireants today, and additional cats have been lost to predatory flies.  My Tropical Milkweed plants have been stripped of leaves.  I have one left that has a few descent leaves on it.  I brought it and the remaining few Monarch caterpillars indoors this afternoon.  I have 4 Monarch caterpillars left to mature into chrysalises.  I also have 3 Queen caterpillars I'm sharing my Milkweed with.  In addition to that, we have 12 chrysalises.  Hopefully, I can keep the predators at bay, and they will make it to adult butterflies.  In my next Blog entry, I'll show you a technique I employed today to protect them.  Please read on, as it may help you too.

Happy Monarching!

Caleb & Janae Warren