SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - We're a little over a month away from the annual monarch butterfly count.
Every year from around Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day the black-and-orange insects can be spotted on the Central Coast but we've seen a troubling trend in recent years.
The Orange County chapter of the California Native Plant Society is giving away one free four-inch California buckwheat plant beginning October 5 at Acorn Day in O’Neill Regional Park. Plants will be distributed for planting in Orange County gardens only. Each of the 1,500 Buckwheat plants will be added to the OC Buckwheat Map as they are planted throughout the county.
The ‘Dana Point’ variety of California buckwheat grows naturally in the Dana Point headlands area and was selected by Tree of Life Nursery. This plant blooms profusely during late spring and summer, and often longer, with creamy white flowers that attract butterflies and other pollinators. California buckwheat is easy to grow and requires little water once established. The 'Dana Point' selection mounds one-to-three-feet and blends perfectly in any garden. California buckwheat is beautiful on a slope, in a border, or in a themed garden.
Click on the link for a list of events where you can get your free buckwheat plant until November 6th:
https://occnps.org/buckwheat-in-every-garden.html
And check with your local California Native Plant Society chapter for similar events:
https://www.cnps.org/
In North America, two separate monarch populations migrate every fall. For the eastern population of butterflies, their migration typically begins in the northeastern U.S. and Canada where they live for the summer. They then travel south throughout the country, passing through most states in the U.S. on their way to spend the winter in Mexico. But monarchs that live west of the Rocky Mountains head to California for the winter, traveling there from states like Nevada and Utah, and south from Washington and Oregon. In spring, each of these populations reverses its route to migrate northward for the summer.
https://www.yahoo.com/amphtml/lifestyle/more-monarch-butterflies-usual-appear-151250179.html
I love the natural world and observing the activities of our wildlife neighbors, from ladybugs to bats, from hummingbirds to lizards to elk, and everything in between. In recent years the time to see creatures like butterflies has expanded for a simple reason: our growing season is longer than it used to be.
A "growing season" is an old term used to describe the period between the last killing frost of spring and the first killing frost of autumn. It is during this period that almost any plant can grow.
A high school teacher in Oxnard, California, received an unexpected visitor from Southern Arizona earlier this month.
