Weekly Puzzler Answer 297

Helen K. has won the giveaway of a free sampler pack of my cards. Congratulations to Helen, and thanks to all who played along with the puzzlers.

Last week’s gorgeous orange flowers and puzzler 297 belong to butterfly weed, also know as butterfly milkweed, or Asclepias tuberosa. Like other milkweed species, it is one of the host plants for the monarch butterfly caterpillar. As you probably know, monarch caterpillars are very fussy and only eat leaves from plants in the milkweed family. Thankfully for us gardeners wanting to grow milkweed to help them–and they do need all the help they can get–there are multiple species of milkweed to choose from like common, swamp, purple, and butterfly weed that grow in sun, or poke or whorled for shady spots.

If you want to help the monarchs, the best way to do this is to plant NATIVE species of milkweed in your yards.

Some people think the best way to help monarchs is to take the caterpillars from the wild and bring them into your house to raise them away from predators, but if you truly want to help the monarchs, RAISE MILKWEED instead.

Also, offer lots of species of flowers in your yards that bloom throughout the season, especially in the fall when the monarchs are on their way to Mexico and need nectar to fuel up for their journey.  Goldenrod, aster, liatris, and ironweed are good choices for plants that bloom in the late summer.

For those of you following along, thank you. I appreciate your time and attention. I know there is always a lot of stuff in your inbox, and wanted to say I appreciate that you follow along with my content. There are a handful of you who respond frequently and make what I do worthwhile. Thank you.

That said, I am going to take a break on the weekly puzzlers for a while. I was hoping to inspire more people to get in on the conversation and I admit that I’m discouraged by the lack of responses and new engagement. Each week I get only one or two responses to my puzzlers, or other posts, usually from the same 5 or 6 people, which to me sometimes just feels like I’m talking to myself. I’m sure most people have no idea how much time I spend photographing, researching, writing, and editing these posts before they become published–all just because I want to share natural history information and bring awareness to some of these things. My blog and website is a labor of love through which I earn zero dollars. Not getting comments or feedback just makes it feel like I’m wasting my time, or banging my head against the wall. 

I may bring back the puzzlers again in the fall or winter.