Butterfly fans, take a breath. I
know it’s officially spring and we’re all pounding on nursery doors, anxious to plant some California native milkweed to help the endangered Western monarch butterfly stay afloat since,
yes, milkweed is the only thing its caterpillars will eat and nonnative varieties appear to be hastening its demise.
But here’s the thing: Native milkweeds are still slowly coming back to life.
Native milkweeds especially narrow-leaf milkweed, the most prominent variety in California are just now emerging from dormancy, a normal, natural thing that won’t be hurried no matter how we plead, said Patty Roess, manager of the retail portion of the Tree of Life Nursery in San Juan Capistrano, one of Southern California’s premier growers of native plants. “We’ve tried growing native milkweed in different conditions and it’s the same. You can’t change what the plant wants to be: a summer bloomer that goes dormant in midwinter.”
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Native Plant Society schedules online plant sale
FAIRFIELD The Willis Linn Jepson Chapter of the California Native Plant Society will host an online plant sale starting this weekend.
The sale begins at 8 a.m. Saturday and continues through 5 p.m. April 29. It is open two days early for members of the California Native Plant Society.
“We’ve greatly expanded our variety of flowering native plants, so you can attract more birds, bees and butterflies to your garden,” Barbara Reiley, manager of the chapter’s nursery, said in a statement. “Natives are much better for the environment than exotic or imported plants, and are perfect for Solano County gardens because they evolved in our hot, dry climate.”