Category: Monarch Butterfly

Plant Flowers, Attract Beneficial Insects

Plant Flowers, Attract Beneficial Insects

| June 27, 2018 | Reply

Plant flowers, attract beneficial insects Some new gardeners don’t realize the role beneficial insects play in the garden, nor, the necessity of planting flowers to attract them for a vegetable garden. I was just out on my back deck observing numerous bees attracted to our tree, which is in bloom. And while they were in […]

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Magnificent Monarchs, Migration & Metamorphosis

Magnificent Monarchs, Migration & Metamorphosis

| February 5, 2016 | 2 Replies

Magnificent Monarchs, Migration & Metamorphosis is my Christmas special 80th episode of Late Bloomer. Photographed over the course of four years, but mainly from 2012, I have passionately nurtured the Monarch butterfly in the Late Bloomer garden. I hope you will watch and share with friends, teachers and schools, and community groups. Spreading awareness is key […]

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When You Know You’ve Got It Bad (for Beans)

When You Know You’ve Got It Bad (for Beans)

| July 2, 2015 | 2 Replies

When you know you’ve got it bad (for beans) is after you put in five hours from 7AM till noon, mostly maintenance at this point, since everything for summer is planted (can one ever say that definitively?), and you wrap it up (2 or 3 times), come in and eat breakfast, which you never got […]

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Grow Mexican Sunflowers and Attract Monarchs

Grow Mexican Sunflowers and Attract Monarchs

| January 21, 2015 | 4 Replies

Grow Mexican Sunflowers and attract Monarchs to your garden. Monarch Butterflies are so friendly once they know your garden is a welcome waystation for them.  This male landed on the flower I was holding while taking a picture. I let it go just before I snapped this. Watch the Late Bloomer episode “Growing Mexican Sunflower” (click through to […]

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Morning Impressions with Monarchs

Morning Impressions with Monarchs

| October 21, 2014 | 2 Replies

Morning impressions with monarchs began my day. I spotted a pineapple guava yesterday and thought this morning it would look nice when the first rays of sun kissed it. As I was photographing it, just after the sun rose past my neighbor’s tree, I remarked (to myself) that I hadn’t seen many Monarch caterpillars, considering that […]

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Grow a Native Meadow in Your Yard

Grow a Native Meadow in Your Yard

| August 13, 2014 | Reply

“Grow a Native Meadow in Your Yard” is the latest and 50th episode of “Late Bloomer!” Kaye shows the growth of her parkway native mini-meadow over the course of a year. Soil health, biodiversity (providing food for wildlife) and water conservation are three reasons to create a meadow in your urban garden. And the best reason, if you […]

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What Happened to Winter?

What Happened to Winter?

| January 15, 2014 | 5 Replies

What happened to winter? The Late Bloomer Garden is feeling the effects of a Santa Ana heat wave: broccoli is bolting and cocoons are eclosing! While I was seeding twelve varieties of heirloom tomato seed for summer out back, my one-of-two Monarch chrysalises eclosed in the front yard. I didn’t know it until I went out to […]

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Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

| December 26, 2012 | 5 Replies

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The Mystery is Revealed!

The Mystery is Revealed!

| December 8, 2012 | 6 Replies

The sun came out today and it warmed up in the afternoon, so I was keeping an hourly watch on this caterpillar, as another curled up cat, that had been curled up for two days, formed a chrysalis in a couple of hours and I missed it. This one looked pretty much the same as it […]

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Wet Cats! (Monarch Caterpillars)

Wet Cats! (Monarch Caterpillars)

| December 3, 2012 | 6 Replies

It’s been gently raining, on and off, for the better part of three days. The ground is soaked, and so are my cats. I go out several times a day to check on them, and count them. This AM, I found 13 caterpillars, five chrysalises, and one forming a chrysalis. About nine, like this one, are […]

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