u/Moist_Rowlettes

First time monarch caterpillar keeper! Had a bit of an incident while pupating where it fell (onto soft surface) but it appeared untouched, so I gently reattached to the mesh ceiling. Could that have potentially influenced anything?

It only emerged around 30 minutes ago, so maybe it’s fine and just fell before its wings were ready? How do you tell?

Not sure what to do from here, if anything. Or, should I just put it down? Either way, poor thing :(

Got these two plants at the same time from the same plant store. One is much more vibrant purple/blue, and the other is lighter with a bit of white.

Just thought it was interesting!

This horsemint is SO big despite only planting it from a plug a few months ago. I’m so impressed, and the pollinators love it, especially these wasps! 🤩 They’re kind of scary at first but so fascinating to watch.

(This post is half-joking but am genuinely curious)

This pearly everlasting is right along the main walkway to my house, and I want that area to be beautiful while also prioritizing natives. It got absolutely ravaged by tons of American lady caterpillars this year (which is a good thing!) However, now the plant is kind of ugly (sorry). Most of the rest of the plants around here are native but still look great.

When I got into native plant gardening I knew I was doing it for the wildlife first and aesthetics second. I’m happy to sacrifice the perfect appearance of plants so that animals can use them as host plants. But this plant is quite ugly now and looks half dead. Not necessarily appearance-wise what I’d want for my main entryway.

I guess I’m asking, is this how it will always look? The plants are young still so maybe when they get even bigger it’ll look better? If this is how it will always be, I won’t get rid of the plant but maybe I’ll put it somewhere else where it’s not front and center. Thanks!

Got these plants for free from another Redditor last year, and they’ve already become some of my new favorites!

The before pic is from last year, but they looked about the same before I cut them down.

Ever since learning about how bad they are I’ve wanted to remove mine but thought it would be a major pain to do so. Tried pruning them to a manageable size back in March, but they came back even stronger as they filled back in. Decided enough was enough and pruned them down to the ground today. It wasn’t even that hard to do! I sawed them as close to the ground as I could and then treated with glyphosate. (Don’t love using chemicals but decided it was easier than ripping up the roots)

Going to eventually replace these with some lovely native red twig dogwoods 😊