From the west coast...
I just joined AllThingsPlants today because I had a question about Rock Purslane on the cactus and tender succulents thread (which was answered, yay).
I also just recently started gardening, and on a whim bought a milkweed plant about a month ago. I got really excited when I saw a couple of Monarch caterpillars on the plant. I hadn't seen any Monarch butterflies, so I figured the eggs must have already been on the plant.
I bought a couple more plants (from a different nursery). I didn't realize until the next day that one plant had a hanging J caterpillar.
I've had quite a few caterpillars over the last three weeks, and I see Monarch butterflies every day. Now the original plant has eggs on nearly every leaf.
Sad to say, these eggs won't become butterflies because all the local nurseries are out of milkweed.
Both nurseries had tons of Monarchs flying around, and a person who worked at the second nursery said that there were more butterflies this year than ever before.
I had a twitter conversation with someone from Texas who thought I was crazy to buy Milkweed because it's an invasive pest there. However, I'm in coastal southern California, where it hasn't rained in months and every uncultivated non-shrub/tree are dead/dying, including weeds, so I can't just find a roadside plant to feed the eggs that will soon be hatching from my one remaining Milkweed that still has foliage.
