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Summer Blooms for Butterflies
You may be aware that milkweed is the only food that monarch caterpillars eat. Monarch butterflies, however, need more than just milkweed to sustain them. Monarchs and other butterflies need gardens that have different species of summer-flowering plants to provide nectar. Today’s post features five terrific summer-blooming California native plants for butterflies that are great […]
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Late July and the Woolly-Pod Milkweed
Every year in late July, I hike along Vista Trail in O’Neill Regional Park to observe two healthy populations of wild milkweed growing along the trail. Last year at this time, the woolly-pod milkweed (Asclepias eriocarpa) plants were in full flower and bustling with bumblebee activity and hungry caterpillars.
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What is Milkweed?
Milkweed is a flowering plant named after a milky latex substance that is exuded when the plant tissues are damaged. Milkweed’s scientific name (genus) is Asclepias, named after Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine. Milkweed is the host plant for monarchs because the caterpillars rely solely on milkweed for food. The latex in milkweed plants […]
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A Chemical-Free Garden for Monarchs
Is it possible to have a beautiful garden without using pesticides and herbicides? In my experience, it has been easy to have a healthy garden that doesn’t require chemical pest control. Reducing our reliance on chemicals protects butterflies, and invites wildlife to step in and manage the unwanted insect population. Birds feed their offspring mostly […]
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Simple Support for Western Monarchs
Every winter, volunteers travel to western monarch overwintering sites to count butterflies roosting in trees near the coast. Last winter, fewer than 2,000 monarch butterflies were found overwintering along the California coast. Compared to 1997, when it was estimated that more than 1 million monarch butterflies overwintered, the numbers from the 2021 count were historically […]
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Monarchs Arrive for Summer
Have you noticed monarch butterflies flying around your California yard this summer? Western monarch butterflies are an iconic butterflies that delight us with bright orange plumage, black stripes, and white polka dots. They are so large, they cast a shadow when they fly overhead. After hearing about the historically low overwintering monarch butterfly count last […]
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Butterflies in the Air
Summer is here and the birds and butterflies are abundant among the native trees and shrubs in the garden. As I was writing this post, I noticed a pale swallowtail butterfly settling on a California coffee berry (Frangula californica). I took a break from the blog, stepped outside and captured this photo of an adult […]
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Summer Buckwheat Blooms Bright
It is July, the height of summer in Southern California, and buckwheats are blooming with thousands of showy white flowers. I took a walk this morning at my favorite local park, O’Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon. Many of the spring-blooming plants are hunkering down in the 90-degree heat, but California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum) is […]
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Buckwheats Around Town
A Buckwheat in Every Garden was created with the hope that sharing a free native plant with gardeners would help improve habitat for birds and pollinators in home landscapes throughout Orange County. We recently reached out to people who picked up a free buckwheat to see how their new buckwheat plant is growing. Here’s a […]
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Powered by Insects
Did you know that most birds gather insects every day to nourish themselves and feed their offspring? Many people believe birds can survive eating seed from bird feeders, but most birds need insects to provide digestible protein for energy, migration, and breeding. A baby bird’s tender digestive system needs soft, fat-filled proteins from insects and […]
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Garden While Spring is Here
Tree of Life Nursery in San Juan Capistrano and Roger’s Gardens in Newport Beach are open and have free buckwheat plants available for pick-up (while supplies last). When you go to pick up your free buckwheat, consider buying a few extra native plants to install in your garden this spring. Tree of Life Nursery is […]
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Befriending the Bumble Bee
Did you know that honey bees were imported from Europe and are not native to the United States? In California, we have about 1,600 species of native bees, and 26 of these are bumble bees. The bumble bee is the largest and gentlest of all the known species of bees. The queen bumble bee hibernates in the winter, […]
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A Sage and A Buckwheat in Every Garden 