We have garden thyme blooming in Cherry Creek Pollinator Habitat. Soon I will be planting basil, dill, borage and parsley. Herbs are important plants to have in a pollinator habitat. The flowers are visited by bees and butterflies. Many butterfly caterpillars feed on the leaves of dill, borage, parsley and other herbs. If you plant several plants, you may get a few herbs for yourself!
MJ Frogge
Right now prairie ragwort is blooming in the Cherry Creek Pollinator Habitat. It is a wonderful early blooming perennial that is native to Nebraska. It reaches one foot in height and has sunny yellow flowers.
MJ Frogge
One of the monarch eggs hatched in the Cherry Creek Pollinator Habitat today!
MJ Frogge
Monarch caterpillar
So I was curious. With all the reports of monarchs already seen in Nebraska, I went out to the Cherry Creek Pollinator Habitat this morning to look for eggs. It did not take long for me to find one on a common milkweed. Wow, its May 5th! I checked other plants and found one more. Keep in mind that these eggs were probably laid by a monarch butterfly that got blown 1500 miles from Mexico. After all those miles it still was able to find a milkweed and lay its eggs. It should have only had to travel as far as Texas and lay its eggs there. Then the butterflies from those eggs would have traveled north to Nebraska later this month. Nature is beyond amazing.
MJ Frogge
Monarch butterfly egg on common milkweed, May 5!
The Buzz at Cherry Creek 