Your Say: Sept. 20-26, 2018
Where Do I Find Milkweed?
I really enjoyed your column and Ms. Barker Frankel’s article that I just read on monarchs in the paper of Sept. 13. We recently purchased property and have not seen any milkweed plants on it, which concerns me. In the past, our property used to be a tobacco farm and then morphed into a horse farm. I was wondering if you know of any local places that I could purchase native plants that you could recommend for monarchs.
I was raised in upstate New York (near Canada) and have noticed that the monarchs are not very plentiful to see as when I was a child. Since they are my favorite butterfly, I wanted to grow milkweed plants along with their favorite flowers at our future home.
Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Here’s Where
Great that you plan to create gardens for your favorite butterfly, the monarch.
Here’s where you can get plants for monarchs, host milkweed for caterpillars and nectar plants for monarchs now migrating to Mexico.
Check out Bay Weekly advertiser Willow Oak Herb Farm, which has milkweed and other butterfly-friendly plants.
The organization Monarch Watch also lists the following as Maryland native plant and “milkweed vendors”: Chesapeake Natives, Upper Marlboro, http://chesapeakenatives.org; Adkins Arboretum, Ridgely (Eastern Shore), www.adkinsarboretum.org; Environmental Concern, Inc., St. Michaels, www.wetland.org.
Environmental Concern is also the home of the Mid-Atlantic Monarch Initiative. Staff plant milkweed, host monarch-rearing workshops and more.
Check Bay Weekly’s 8 Days a Week calendar for special monarch events this coming Saturday, including the Monarch Fiesta at Jug Bay, Monarch Day at Battle Creek Cypress Swamp, the Migration Celebration at Artemisia Park in Berwyn Heights and the Pollinators Festival at North Tract of Patuxent Research Refuge, Laurel.
Find It In Bay Weekly
As a native Marylander now residing in Texas, I have had quite a bit of fun with Texans about state pride. Living in west Texas, my proverbial desert coming from Chesapeake Bay, I get questions about my home and heritage and recently had a local judge ask me about our Maryland flag and the uniforms the Terps wore when they beat University of Texas.
When I Googled info about the flag, guess what popped up? An article from Bay Weekly about the history of our unique flag and how to fly it and how the University of Maryland came to have those awesome Under Armour outfits.
Thank you Bay Weekly, I miss you and Maryland and water.
Write on!