The process begins by soaking the milkweed seeds in water on paper towels. Keep them moist every day and cover with plastic wrap. An alternative starter mix is PERLITE, obtained from nurseries as shown here – this can create a mini-greenhouse effect as the seeds bask in the afternoon sun for about a week. Perlite is a gentle medium that allows the 2-inch baby seedling roots to be easily removed with tweezers as you replant them in starter seed mix…. Once [...]

Mexican Sunflower, Permies.com Celebrate when you see a migrating “old timer” ​sipping nectar from a WAYSTATION GARDEN. One of their favorite flowers is Tithonia ~ The Mexican Sunflower! ​Tithonia diversifolia Hardy to zone 9a Blooms summer to first frost Annual plant (perennial flower for USDA hardiness zones 10-11) Full sun to part shade Height: 4 to 6 feet Flowers: vibrant orange, red or yellow

The Butterfly Bush (Buddleia davidii) is a Monarch favorite! This lovely photo comes to us from a guest post by Lenora Larson to the blog of the Powell Gardens, Kansas City, MO. This prestigious botanical garden has been monitoring Buddleia for the past 18 years. Visit the Powell Gardens botanical garden website at https://powellgardens.org/. Read more of Lenora Larsen’s full series, “Butterflies in Our World” on the Friends of the Garden website.

Do bees have a sixth sense? New research shows that opposites really do attract: bees are positively charged and flowers are negatively charged.

Do bees have a sixth sense? New research shows that opposites really do attract: bees are positively charged and flowers are negatively charged. Animal pollination occurs when plants bribe or trick animals into carrying their pollen to other plants of the same species. Here Dr. Mia Park, a pollination ecologist, explains how this this works.