The Dance of the Monarchs

The Monarchs are here!  This morning when I was out and about, I noticed a few early-comers visiting the Purple Ageratums but by this evening, the flowers were alive!  Ms. Ez and I slipped out to the gardens while on our way to the pier and were pleasantly surprised with a good number of the orange and black beauties!  The ageratums were literally crawling with the pretty, little critters!  This evening, I counted thirty-one butterflies.  This is not nearly as many as the hundreds that swirled about my head last year but this is only day one of their visit to the Bayou.  More will come!

I did notice, though, that all of the Monarchs were on the Purple Ageratums.  There was not a single one on the zinnias.  I wonder what the allure of the ageratums is and why the zinnias do not have it.  The Fritillaries, Yellow Sulphurs and the Long-tailed Skippers were on both but the Monarchs stayed close to the ageratums.  Do butterflies have preferences?  Does one type of butterfly prefer a certain type of flower?  I am supposing that like humans, butterflies can develop a liking for specific nectar!  My Monarchs definitely head to the ageratum garden over all the other flowers.

Now, all of these butterflies visiting the gardens give me satisfaction.  I have been threatening to mow out all the ageratums and never allow them back into the gardens.  This time of year, they get long and lanky.  They spill over into every other garden and block the pathway.  You see, these are wild ageratums.  They are not some sweet, self-contained nursery stock plant.  They are wild and free!  They will take over the place if you allow it!  But when the Monarchs come, I am happy with the wild and woolly gardens!  The scraggly plants can be removed in a month or so.  By then even the latest of straggler butterflies will have moved on their way.