Swan Plants and Monarch Butterflies - 2021 Update

Back in 2019, I published a post on how I wanted to have a butterfly sanctuary in my garden. I love Monarch butterflies (I specifically identified this species as white butterflies are pests in my garden, which continuously devour on my vegetables like cabbages and cauliflowers) and I want to give them a nurturing environment by planting Swan Plants where they can lay their eggs and for the caterpillars to live on, until they undergo metamorphosis.

I've got around four plants (I only have three photos, as I already took down one of them) which eventually grew taller than me. However, through time, they became more of a nuisance as their location is not ideal aesthetically (they're mixed with my citruses and just close to the neighbor's fence) and since they are too exposed, the prevalence of wasps makes it easy for the caterpillars to become prey for them.

It is the reason why I haven't updated that posts in more than a year, since I have rarely seen a caterpillar transformed into a butterfly back then. I have actually considered that project a failure.So here I am now, hitting the reset button. My plan is to grow a new set of Swan plants that will serve as a breeding ground for Monarch butterflies. Initially, I planted new swan plants in pots and put them at the west side of our house.

Then I started by clearing a section in the frontage of our house then planted a number of Swan plants. After cutting a big shrub at one side of the house, I put in soil conditioner and wood chips to prepare the soil, then put more Swan plants to grow at the back row. However, I decided to plant some lupins in the front row to attract more pollinators and at the same time provide some variety of plants in that section. Also, lupins are easy to grow and maintain.

A month after, here's how they look like.

It's nice seeing eggs being laid by Monarch butterflies on these new plants. I expected them to be hatched and turn into these cute caterpillars which will soon evolve into new Monarch butterflies.

Here are some photos of the caterpillars I have on the plants as of this writing.

I am looking forward to see them next spring, when most of the plants have taken off and I will also update my blog to let you know of the progress I made. And I hope in the coming weeks, I will see more of these butterflies hovering around our yard.

Thank you and I hope you enjoyed reading.