As a child growing up in the Midwest, I was encouraged to spend as much time as possible outside exploring the meadows and lakeshore near our home. On these rambles, my parents or sisters would point out and identify the trees and plants that we encountered. We were especially delighted when we discovered the common milkweed plant. I learned early on to identify its smooth, dark green leaves and purplish pink flowers.
Not only would my sisters and I find the milkweed plant growing in the nearby meadows around our house, we soon discovered this plant also growing in local gardens in my neighborhood. I often wondered why my parents, who were both enthusiastic gardeners, would so carefully cultivate a “weed” in our own backyard gardens.
The answer? Butterflies! The milkweed plant is vital for the very survival of monarch butterflies, as milkweed leaves are the monarch caterpillars’ sole food source. Adult monarch butterflies also visit milkweed flowers for nectar and to lay their small, pale yellow eggs on milkweed leaves. Here in New Jersey, there are many other native plants, in addition to the milkweed plant, that thrive in a pollinator garden, such as the aster, coreopsis, purple coneflower, and goldenrod, to name a few.
This summer, butterflies will be as close as a visit to the library’s third floor as part of the Youth Services 2025 Summer Reading Program, “Color our World.” Join us as we raise our very own Painted Lady butterflies and watch as they transform from tiny caterpillars to a chrysalis and finally emerge as colorful butterflies. We will release the butterflies at a local pollinator garden. Consult the library’s Calendar of Events for this and other colorful summer programs related to butterflies and gardening.
Looking for resources to create your own butterfly-friendly garden? Look no further than the New Jersey Butterfly Club and the Rutgers Master Gardeners of Mercer County. Additionally, the titles and resources in the library’s Pollinators and Wildflowers list have been curated to help you discover the pollinators around us and learn about their importance. Happy gardening!
Photo by Britt Gaiser on Unsplash