Monarch butterflies have a habitat of wildflowers and plants native to Missouri located at 1420 Maud St., Poplar Bluff, which is open to the public.
Megan York, a wildlife biologist with the Mark Twain National Forest, created the first one in 2008. The next year, York did the section in front of the visitor parking at the Poplar Bluff Ranger Station.
“There was a lot of information coming out about monarch butterflies and how important certain plants were for them,” York said. “I wanted to improve habitat for native pollinators. Basically, there was a focus on creating monarch habitat. Monarchs need host plants for nectar and they need host plants to lay eggs and for their larva to grow and develop into adult butterflies.”
She explained, those visiting “the site can’t dig plants, but can take small quantities of seeds on the edge of the garden. I don’t want them trampling in the garden to reach seeds. I’d rather have them just observe, enjoy the plants and gathers seeds in small doses, small quantities.”
The ranger station is public ground so it is open to the public.
“People can come and look at the garden and enjoy it at any time,” she said. “Our office hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, but the gardens they can visit at their convenience. We are going to have a gate and fencing put up in the future.”
Along with the native plants, “There’s been several pollinator species we’ve documented in the garden,” York said. “So not only butterflies, but different types of insects. I’ve documented doves coming and actually plugging some of the old grass to make nests. I’ve seen the different kinds of spiders in there. I had one rabbit nest in there one year. It really provides habitat for more than pollinators. It did pay off with the monarchs because we’ve had bumper crops of monarchs. We’ve had the chrysalis hanging, we’ve watched them morph into caterpillars and hatch out into butterflies. We’ve seen the whole life cycle of the monarch here from having this habitat.”
York started the garden by ordering the plants from a Missouri company that has native plants and native seed.
“I ordered live, bare root plants,” she said. ‘The best time to plant natives is toward the fall. If you’re going to plant a seed or scatter seed, it’s better in the wintertime, like November to February. It’s best in the fall, if you’re going to do plants, and it allows the roots to get established before summer hits, and it gets real hot and dry.”
She picked a variety of sizes, so some of them are much taller than others. She tried to make sure there was something blooming throughout the season so there would be some sort of nectar for different pollinators throughout spring to fall.
York laid out a design, killed the existing vegetation, and brought in rocks.
If the milkweed, which is the host plant for monarch, dies, she orders more.
She pays attention to keep those going that are less aggressive. She has to be careful to with non-native, like weeds that come in from roads or the seed dropped by birds.
“That’s been a little challenge,” she said. “It’s an ongoing process and takes some time and dedication to keep crabgrass and any non-native weeds out.”
There’s probably four plants York would not recommend putting in a small garden. If you had a larger landscape, they would maybe do great, but in this small area, they’re just too aggressive and would take over.
One is bee bomb, which is in the mint family. Mints are very aggressive. Another one is big bluestem, which is a native grass and they’ve got a root system that will go down 15 to 20 feet. They’re good for stabilizing the soil, but they get pretty tall, and can shade things out. They can take over, she said. Another is called Texas greeneyes, which Goldfinch really love, but seem to get aggressive. The fourth plant, longhead coneflowers, took York several years to remove from the garden.
York encourages “folks to plant native rather than non-native. It really is the biggest thing. The local wildlife are acclimated to native plants, rather than non native so they do much better with natives.
“We also burn the garden off in February to maintain it,” she said. “We’ll leave all the plants standing. So the birds can feed on the seed and all through the winter. When winter is pretty well over, we’ll burn it down.”
Anyone interested in native gardens may call York for advice.
Missouri Department of Conservation’s website promotes growing native plants for the landscape but people are welcome to contact her at 573-785-1475.