A few years ago, a friend gave me a few milkweed seeds, which I grew in hopes of attracting a monarch butterfly or two to the front yard. Little did I know, I was sowing the seeds of a feast for pollinators.
Those first few milkweed plants have done what I have since learned milkweed is famous for— spreading aggressively. What once was a half dozen plants is now close to 100, and there would be more except I’ve pulled them from places where they’re outcompeting other flowers.
But it’s hard to argue with the pull of the milkweed flower, which grow by the dozens in pinkish balls, several to each individual milkweed. They are fragrant and loaded with nectar, and when they bloom in mid-to-late July, they pull in every manner of bee and butterfly. They pull me in as well, not for the nectar but for the show, put on by the hundreds of bees, ranging from the largest bumblebee to tiny sweat bees barely a quarter inch in length.
And sure, the monarchs are there as well, and they’ve been busy laying eggs. I’ve found dozens of their striped caterpillars over the past few weeks, a small contribution to the survival of this remarkable species.