2 Fall Pollinator Plants + Migrators Head south

Happy Sunday Good GROWer,

I hope you had an amazing week. On Tuesday, the 15 monarchs we hosted in our garden for more than a week, finally took off for warmer pastures…

It’s a privilege and an honor to be able to host and support these amazing creatures year after year, inside our ever-evolving garden.

Once they find your pollinator paradise, they keep coming back. As your garden improves, you’ll see more monarchs and, eventually you could host a roost ⬅️ (large group) of monarchs stocking up on nectar in your own back yard.

We’ve hosted a few large roosts in our old suburban garden…our new garden seems better situated for roosting with more trees, but the most we’ve seen here (at one time) is just under 30 last season.

But, each fall gives you new opportunities to add/subtract host and nectar plants to improve your chances of seeing more monarchs next year. Here are a few of the 15 migrators we hosted over the past week:

Further down, I’ll share two plants we’re fall planting to improve our 2026 garden.

But first, a quick report on our the monarchs we’re raising for Raise The Migration 2025…

Raising Report 

This has been a quiet week. We’ve released 6 monarchs (so far) with the last joining the garden migrators on Sunday, September 21st. When the north winds blew in Tuesday, the garden monarchs began/continued their journey south.

9 monarchs are still developing inside their chrysalides ⬅️ and most will emerge in this extended summery weather, which has has highs in the 80’s through October 4th.

Because of these balmy highs, it’s probable all of these monarchs will be released the same day they emerge if the butterflies eclose in the morning hours.

If you have questions about releasing your final butterflies back to nature, check out our blog post on:

How to Safely Release Monarch Butterflies ⬅️

🌿 Garden PLANT Report 🌺

Today, we’re featuring two late blooming natives:

1. New England Asters ⬅️- while the monarchs have left the building, a bevy of bees remains and the star of the week is New England asters which are completely filled with bees, and a few sulphur butterflies. We had smooth blue asters in our last garden, but these have been far superior in attracting monarchs and other pollinators.
   

2. Showy Goldenrod ⬅️- we had this in our old garden and it attracted a lot of pollinators and some monarchs. I think it would attract more butterflies if it wasn’t always so full of the smallinators…regardless, I like this species much better than Stiff Goldenrod, which is far more invasive with underground rhizomes. Here is some growing in the wildflower field across from our home:

Showy goldenrod is a great option for fall planting, and we’re also adding some autumn joy sedum ⬅️ to the mix. Here’s more info on:

Fall Planting PLANTS for the 2026 season ⬅️

Is Tropical Milkweed DELAYING the migration? 🥶

I’d like to address concerns over the fear that tropical milkweed ⬅️ keeps monarchs from migrating.

We’ve planted it in our northern gardens for almost 20 years and never had monarchs lay ‘too late’ eggs or butterflies stay until it’s ‘too cold’ to take flight.

Our tropical milkweed remains in prime condition for weeks after I see our final garden monarch! During this time, it’s not used as a host plant, but it is used as a nectar source by monarchs and other late season pollinators.

I checked our tropical milkweed after the migrators left (like I do every year) and there are no eggs or caterpillars on it…the monarchs are taking their cues to migrate from other environmental factors like day length, and wind direction.

When the North Winds Blow, the Monarchs GO! 🌬️🦋 

Coming Up Next?

More fall planting ideas and a report on other fall pollinators in our October butterfly garden 🦋🎃

Blue Skies and Butterflies,

Tony your Butterfly Guide