Ok, maybe not Monarch Dad, but I really do enjoy watching them from my easy chair.
I had opened the blinds in front of the house in the morning. I wanted to inspect the plants I am propagating on my porch. Right now I have two pots of "Iguana Resistant Hibiscus" started for a dear friend here in town. "Wilton Manors' Big Sister" I call her, and I'll do pretty much anything she asks.
Within reason. Her dog does not like me but I guess it is because I'm a big burly guy and it serves me right for barging in her front door.
So I won't walk her dog.
But I do have those pots for her. It means that I had to go out and water them. I noticed that my basil is growing, and I had to trim that back. It is prime growing season for Basil and I since I have pizza, frequently, I propagate that both from seed and cuttings.
Bending down, I spotted some seed pods that I had to pull off the plant, and scatter in the garden. Doing so, I moved the plant a bit and disturbed a Monarch Butterfly. She had just this morning emerged from the Pupa and was pumping her wings full of fluids so that she could go on her beautiful life in the gardens here.
I was enthralled watching her flap her wings, and straightening them out under a leaf of Basil that later would end up on my lunch. Roll them up like a tooth pick, then cut them into shreds.
The Basil, not the Butterfly.
It convinced me to go into the backyard and start some more milkweed, once the ants are cleared out. In Florida, you either have ants or will have them, and they colonized my potting soil. A little ant bait will take care of that issue.
But propagating plants is my thing. Any time I can, I do. I have a large pot out there that is the world's smallest Onion Farm with four Onions growing in it among the Croton.
May as well enjoy it, I think we're going to be here for quite a while.
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