🎃ctober Surprise: SWALLOWTAILS❣️🐛

Happy Sunday Good GROWer,

it’s been a surprisingly busy week in our Minnesota garden with a bounty of butterflies and migrating birds…

With unseasonably warm temps in the 80’s and 90’s, it’s felt more like August here. That all ends, later today, when the north winds start blowing in cold air from Canada. 🍁

I have some interesting and exciting reports to share from the garden this week…

Raising Report 

It’s rare to share a raising report in October that’s not about monarchs, but our prolonged September heat wave enticed some later-than-average egg laying in our Minnesota garden.

On the final day of September, I noticed these little guys on our potted parsley plant:

If you’d like to host eastern black swallowtails in your garden, be sure to scroll down this newsletter for info on how to get 40% OFF one of their host plants…today only! 

We will be overwintering them outdoors and will discuss this in upcoming newsletters…

🌿 Garden PLANT Report 🌺

Today, we’re featuring a climbing vine for monarchs, and a host plant for black swallowtails :

1. Mexican Flame Vine (Pseudogynoxys chenopodioides) ⬅️- this was a late bloomer in our garden this year (perhaps needed a little more sun to thrive) but our migrating monarchs were regular visitors…curiously, I’ve only noticed females on these flowers 🤔)
   

2. Golden Alexander (Zizea aurea) ⬅️- if you’re interested in hosting eastern black swallowtails in your garden next season Joyful Butterfly has a sale through today (Sunday) on this native perennial plant when you use code GOLDENGLOW at checkout:

Buy 2 or more Golden Alexander Plants and get 40% OFF ⬅️ (use code GOLDENGLOW at checkout)

If you’re looking for a head start on next growing season, Golden Alexander is a good option for Fall Planting.

Garden LIFE Report 🐸🐍🦋🐛🦃🐦

The garden has really come to life over the past couple weeks! Here’s an update on all of our recent garden visitors:

• 3 Snakes- Our resident green frog went missing for two weeks and we wondered why. Our leopard frog from last season stayed until November. Then I saw not one, but three garter snakes around the water feature and feared the worst four our little friend…
  

• Resident Frog Returns- a couple nights after my snake discovery, I was rolling the yard waste can by the water feature and saw this….he survived! I’m not sure where he was for so long but he’s back in place and I haven’t seen the snakes since. 😓 Snake and Frog Photos ⬅️
  

• Painted Ladies (Vanessa cardui)- These butterflies have been rare in the 2025 garden, but I caught these two warming their wings on our silver mound plants a couple days ago on a cloudy morning:

• Monarchs- as of October 4th, there are still 7 fluttering around the garden (most are probably recent releases from raise the migration ⬅️)…they’ll be gone by October 6th when the north winds start blowing again.
  

• Turkeys- this flock of about 20 birds walks through our front yard twice daily…down the street each morning, and then back up each evening
  

• Migrating Birds- in just the past couple days we have seen and heard more bird activity in the back yard…with the change of season, next week might be a big travel week for more! 🦆 🐦🦉

Coming Up Next?

Fall planting can finally continue now that the temps are seasonably cool and it’s time to decide which plants we’re overwintering indoors and why….the list seems to shrink every year as we’ve planted more perennials, but there will still be a select few.

Until next time,

Tony your Butterfly Guide

PS…Don’t forget:

Buy 2 or more Golden Alexander Plants and get 40% OFF ⬅️ (use code GOLDENGLOW at checkout)