10,000 seeds of change

The book tour just finished.  What an incredible adventure!  As some of you know, when I set out on this five-week adventure promoting THE BUTTERFLY'S DAUGHTER, I also began a personal mission to help save monarch butterflies by pledging to get 10,000 milkweed seeds into readers' hands during book tour.  I had no idea that I would receive such a tremendous response from readers.  It was amazing! I was inundated with requests for milkweed seed packets.  Thanks to the volume of readers eager to plant this vital monarch food source I actually surpassed my 10,000 seed goal, even before the tour was finished. 

"Plant a seed. Make a difference," was my motto.  Monarch butterflies have been struggling to survive in the U.S., in part because their habitat has been disappearing due to development.  Milkweed is the only food source for monarch caterpillars.

For anyone interested in growing milkweed, I recommend that you visit http://www.livemonarch.org/ where you can request free seeds.  But at this point in the butterfly season, my advice is to order the milkweed starter plants on that site.  They're cheap and you'll get a 45 day jump on the season.  It's worth it.  The sooner you have milkweed in bloom, the sooner you can enjoy seeing monarchs in your yard.  I ordered quite a few rooted milkweed cuttings from Live Monarch and have had great success. 

Do you have milkweed growing in your yard?  What's your monarch butterfly experience so far?