The Monarch butterflies have not only made it to St. Louis, Missouri, but they are laying eggs in abundance. A couple of days ago, I saw a flash of orange out the window and when I headed out I discovered forty Swamp Milkweed plants with anywhere from one to three eggs each.
Two days later, I watched as two distinct females laid eggs on another forty-two plants plus a number of Swamp Milkweed in my gardens.
I’ve never had this many eggs laid in the past. I usually might get one to five eggs, and in some years none. It is interesting that these females looked older and one had part of a wing torn away.
Addendum – April 17 – Monarchs still around and laying eggs.
You might wonder how I ended up with so many Swamp milkweed plants and the answer is that these are from seeds I planted in the fall of 2015. Last year I let them grow in place and this year I dug them up for potting.
If you haven’t already, get your milkweed outside and hope the Monarchs will find it.
EDIT – April 19th – Monarchs are still laying eggs on my milkweed. This makes a week of Monarchs in my garden. They don’t seem to have any preference.
Butterfly Gardening 
Exciting news!
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While weed whacking last weekend I thought I saw something orange flying around. I lost sight of it. Today, I thought I again saw something orange flying around our new raised bed flower garden. I walked by the established butterfly garden and a MONARCH flew by me. Her wings were a dull orange. On a whim I decided to check the milkweed plants which are only about 1 to 3 inches high. Sure enough, we have EGGS!!! I was stunned as last year we didn’t even see our first Monarch until well after the milkweed bloomed! I guess I need to get my cages and containers washed and disinfected. I’ve read about people north of us seeing Monarchs (we are SW of Springfield, MO) and thought “Yeah right.” Had lots of fun trying to locate eggs on the milkweed. Felt like a kid in a candy store!!
Oh what great news! I live between Omaha & Sioux City so we have t seen any yet, but my milkweed is just barely out of the ground!