Horty Kim

Ok so we grew a Monarch Butterfly.

We purchased a Swan plant with a MB chrysalis from THE RED BARN , Dunedin NZ just before Xmas and put it in the glasshouse with the tomatoes and my beloved gooseberry. I then tended the operation by watering the swan plant and not spraying anything on the tomatoes to control white fly or spraying my gooseberry for aphids:I usually use a low toxicity spray which contains garlic ,chilli and pyrethrums but opted to just spray the sap suckers off with a good spray with the hose(never water plants in the glasshouse during full sun).I just used water to control the pests ’cause I didn’t know what effect an insecticide would have on the chrysalis even though the garlic/chilli/pyrethrum control is the lesser of many evils.

Picture of healthy chrysalis here.

And since a video tells a thousand and one stories…here you go

Well, I kept an eye on our baby butterfly in the Pittsporum tree for quite a while ,I even got the binoculars out to make sure I was not imagining the odd flutter of wings in the Pitto.Yah ,it was still there so I made a Budhleia flower sandwhich on rye(yes I removed the crusts) and I left it in the garden in case our baby butterfly came back for a wee snack.And that is the story so far .Ovah and out!