This is our first year seeing any action from the monarchs. I’ve had common milkweed for the last two seasons, but the mommas have always passed us by. Apparently, it is not a favorite variety.
Last year, I bit the bullet and ordered some swamp milkweed- it arrived too late for spring migration. Jump to this season and we’re on their radar! The moms seem to only lay on the swamp milkweed, but there is some common milkweed in the mix. The eggs don’t seem to be laid on the common, but the caterpillars seem to eventually move to it.
I ended up damaging a common orange plant attempting to move it, and I stuck the tips in water on my front porch. Maybe they root; maybe they don’t. I didn’t want to just throw it out.
I guess one monarch found my cuttings and left a couple of eggs. All the common milkweed in the back is still untouched, but that swamp milkweed is bringing them into the front garden and now a hundred feet away on the porch. I have to assume it was her last resort. Wild!