“Naked Milkweed”

Additional plants for hungary caterpillars!

One of my five (5!) beautiful babies!

My husband and I were returning from a late afternoon errand, when I looked out the car window and didn’t see the milkweed. I go to investigate and was shocked! Everything, and I mean everything, had been eaten! Only the spindly spines of the plants were left. I go get my camera to take a picture for the blog, fuming to my hubby that the deer ate the MW even though it was deer resistant, that I couldn’t have anything. I take the picture and then think about how we have had afternoon rains everyday this week, and with the wet ground, I should be able to see deer tracks…concrete evidence of the deer. So I look closely at the ground and, lo and behold, see a caterpillar! For a nano-second, I think it might be a Monarch caterpillar, but dismiss it, thinking no way. This is a first year crop of MW, started from seeds.  It is, as I had been calling it, my “piddly little crop of MW.”  I quickly e-mail the pictures to my sister Robin and then call her, thankfully she was home. She takes one look at the pictures and exclaims that I have a MONARCH CATERPILLAR!!!  I say, are you sure??!!  She is an expert,  I knew she knew a monarch caterpillar when she saw one, I just couldn’t believe it!  Then she tells me that, with the extent of the eating, I must have more than one caterpillar. So still on the phone, I go out to look closer and found three more! Then she tells me I HAVE TO GET MORE MW. It is now 5:40, Saturday evening, and again I’m thinking, no way. I then remembered there was suppose to be a native plant nursery not far from me, but I had never been there, didn’t know where it was, and figured they would be closed anyway. But I quickly call them and they were open! In panic mode, I explained what was going on and she said they were closing at 6:00 but would stay open for me until 6:15. Because I didn’t know where I was going, I told my hubby he needed to come with me, this was AN EMERGENCY!  He was watching the University of GA football game, and to put it mildly, was not a happy camper. With him cursing me, and by the grace of God, we made it to the nursery!