Frequently asked questions

Pollinating insects are the foundation for vegetable and fruit production. Attempting to pollinate the millions of food producing plants, trees and bushes by hand would be nearly impossible. Yields would suffer tremendously and costs would rise horribly. Mechanized pollination would require massive investment capital again resulting in huge cost increases for produce you enjoy on a daily basis. Insects pollinate these plants for free. The real question is why we are killing them off when they do so much for us and our planet.

They are cool. Their migratory routes would be unbelievable were they not backed up by scientific and visual evidence. And while Monarchs aren’t included on the endangered species list yet, habitat is disappearing as open fields are replaced by subdivisions and milkweed is being killed with herbicides.

Milkweed is the only plant a Monarch butterfly will lay its eggs on. When the eggs hatch, the larva (caterpillar) eats the milkweed leaves as it grows in size. Then it will produce a chrysalis and after a week or two, out comes a fully evolved Monarch butterfly, ready to journey either North or South depending on the time of year.

Almost all varieties of milkweed contain a milky white sap inside the leaves and stems. And it was long considered to be a useless, undesirable weed.

Bees and other insects come out in early Spring, before many flowers have bloomed, desperately seeking pollen to feed on. Having early Spring blooming flowers helps stabilize and improve their population. Flowers that bloom in the Summer support all pollinators. Late flowering species help extend the pollen food supply until frost.

Very little to none. Our plants are native to Central NC and are selected for their toughness and drought tolerance. No fertilization is needed and most soils need little to no conditioning, although we recommend you use our Pollinator Plant Soil Mix for a healthy start.

We sell three varieties of milkweed, all native to NC. Common milkweed (Asclepius Syriaca) has big leaves ad a long tap root. Swamp milkweed (Asclepius Incarnata) has more narrow leaves and a clumpy root system. I sell Butterfly weed (Asclepius Tuberosa) because it’s the only milkweed plant that doesn’t have the milky sap which can cause skin irritation if touched.

Yep, you sure can, as long as you get lots of sunlight.

Very little. We keep everything as simple as we can. Just keep the water filled in the milkweed leaf containers so the leaves don’t dry out. You may want to empty the hatchery of frass (caterpillar poop). You can toss it in the trash or in the yard.

PLEASE send it back to us. Follow the directions and mail everything back to us. We’ll disinfect anything that is reusable and ensure that you aren’t contributing to a pretty nasty Monarch bacteria called MO. An infected Monarch will lay infected eggs which will eventually become even more infected butterflies, so we want to take all precautions to keep the population safe from harm.