Monarch Butterflies in the Garden in spring!!!

I am writing this article in the first few days of spring-(early September) and we are absolutely fascinated by all the monarch butterflies in our garden over the last month. Today we had at least 20 butterflies dancing between the flowers on our echium plant. This plant obviously provides a wonderful food source for these butterflies at this time of the year, as well as bees and other flying insects. The monarchs haven’t just arrived in our garden; they have been here for the last two months. Moving from one flowering source of food to another as the season progressed.

Some of the other plants they have been recently feeding on in our garden are camellia transnokoensis, camellia tsai and raphiolepis umbellata. We get a lot of pleasure from watching these butterflies in our garden. When the sun is shining they literally dance between the flowers feeding on the nectar. Rather than just relying on the old favourite swan plant to bring in the monarch butterflies, plant some of their other food sources. Then you can watch the butterflies continuously over the winter months, as we have.