Native Plant Sales | Save the Monarchs

Happy Earth Month

 SAVE THE MONARCHS!

Local groups are all joining together this year to help the Monarchs and are selling native Milkweed plants, for eggs and caterpillar food, and nectar plants, for butterfly food.  

Three ways to Donate Plants to a school Pollinator Garden

These local partners have agreed to help us choose the appropriate plants for a native plant and pollinator garden.  Order early, some supplies are limited.

1.  Audubon Greenwich | Native Plant Sale...

for the birds, butterflies, and bees | Order deadline April 28th

Greenwich.Audubon.org (203) 869-5272

2.  Garden Education Center of Greenwich | Monarch Themed Plant Sale |

Order deadline April 10, Monarch Themed Plant Sale at May Gardeners Market

Saturday, May 3rd, 9:00 am - 2:00 pm, Rain or Shine, Free Shuttle from Cos Cob Elementary School to GEC.  NO PARKING ON SITE. 203-869-9242  www.gecgreenwich.org

3.  Or donate directly to the PTA for the pollinator garden.

PTA Pollinator Levels

$2    Egg on a Milkweed Leaf

$5    Caterpillar (larvae)

$10  Chrysalis (pupa)

$25  Butterfly

$50  Nectar Flower

$100 Migrator Free Butterfly Release Kit!

You can also buy a cupcake on Earth Day, April 22nd

at our Save the Monarch Butterfly Bake Sale!

THREE MORE WAYS YOU CAN HELP MONARCHS

• Use Pesticides with care, remember that about 95 percent of the insects you see in your garden are either helpful or harmless.
• Be a citizen scientist:  The Monarch Larva Monitoring Project helps scientists better understand how monarch populations vary. Journey North citizen scientists track monarch migration and report their observations to real-time maps.  Join the International Bring Back the Monarchs campaign.
• Attract butterflies to your own garden, by planting a "butterfly friendly" plants required by butterfly larvae. Butterfly friendly plants usually produce clusters of brightly colored sweet-smelling flowers.2

FUN FACTS:  DID YOU KNOW?

• Butterflies are pollinators!   "While the best-known pollinators may be honeybees and bumblebees, there are a myriad of other insects and birds that contribute to pollination. Some of the most beautiful and graceful are butterflies, and instead of noisily buzzing from flower to flower, butterflies artfully flit.2"

• Monarchs need Milkweed to survive!  We know that adult butterflies feed on the nectar of flowers, but did you know they ONLY lay their eggs on a very limited number of native plants?  That’s why everyone is planting Milkweed!  The Greenwich Land Trust and Greenwich Community Garden

• Butterflies taste with their feet!  which is where their taste sensors are located and by standing on their food, they can taste it to see if their caterpillars are able to eat it.2"

• Butterflies need our help!  "Butterfly populations are on the decline due to humans reducing numbers of pollinators by destroying habitats and migratory nectar corridors, emitting pollution and the misuse of pesticides.2"

• Do you know how to tell a male from a female monarch butterfly? “The male monarchs have a black spot on each of the hind wings over a vein. The female monarch butterfly does not have this spot.1"

• Monarchs are INCREDIBLE! “That's the word that comes to mind when I think about the monarch butterfly. An insect with a body the size and weight of a paper clip can migrate 1,500 miles or more. Not once, but twice in its lifetime. First in autumn, when it flies to a specific overwintering site in Mexico — a trip it has never taken before. And again in spring, when it returns north to reproduce. Just incredible".3

OUR RESOURCES

1www.monarch-butterfly.com

2aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu

3Saving the Monarch Butterfly:  What gardeners can do to help by Suzanne DeJohn
Excellent ACTIVITIES!  http://www.flightofthebutterflies.com/in-the-classroom/

Have Questions or want to volunteer?  contact Green Schools, ptacgreenschools@gmail.com

Don't Forget the Pollinator Norms!  

Pollinators give us a strong connection to global ecosystems and bio-diversity:  

Bee here, Bee now, Bee Honest, Care for Plants and Water, Let Go and Move On!

Welcome Home Monarchs!  Happy Earth Day!  

This info and cafeteria billboard is from the JC Student Council and Senior Science Enrichment.  Green Schools is helping them start a pollinator garden to help Monarch Butterflies.  They are trying to create a certified Monarch Waystation habitat.  The Greenwich Land Trust helped provide seeds and they have seedlings started at the Garden Education Center of Greenwich.  Parents can purchase plants and donate directly to the school.