Volume 2, Issue 2
Plant Answer Line question:
How can a Seattle gardener help protect butterflies?

Q: I would like to help with the conservation of monarch butterflies, whose caterpillars feed only on milkweed. I am also gradually converting my small Seattle garden to a native-plant garden. Do these two goals contradict each other? Are any of the milkweeds native to Seattle and vicinity? Would monarchs themselves be an exotic species here?

A: It's wonderful that you want to help with butterfly conservation. Monarch butterflies are not frequently seen in the Puget Sound region and, as you may be aware, it is too cold for them to overwinter here (they need an air temperature of at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Jerry Sedenko's The Butterfly Garden [Villard Books, 1991]). However, you can do several things to make your home landscape hospitable to the pollinators we do have in our area, including not using any pesticides in your garden and persuading your friends and neighbors to refrain from using them also.

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has useful information about Western Monarchs, as well as separate pollinator conservation resources (for a variety of pollinators--not Monarchs) for the Pacific Northwest. 

You might be most effective in supporting the Monarch conservation effort financially while devoting your gardening efforts to conservation of species that are native to our area. Here are the Xerces Society's list of Pacific Northwest butterflies and bees. To learn more about native plants and butterflies, read Plant Answer Line Librarian Rebecca Alexander's complete answer in our online Gardening Answers Knowledgebase.

Book and video display on pollinators and pollination

Featured Book: The Garden Anthology from the RHS 

Some of the best garden writing of the last century can be found in The Garden Anthology, a selection of articles from the journal of the Royal Horticultural Society of Britain.  From early 20^th century stalwarts such as E. A. Bowles and Gertrude Jekyll to the best of today’s writing, this is a book to enjoy from cover-to-cover for its whimsy, controversy, glimpses into famous personalities, and lots of excellent and practical gardening ideas.

New to the Library January 2015