UPDATE, 5/13/18: A representative from Sustainable Wellesley says, “We just sold out and are Working on getting more. Anyone interested can email us at [email protected] to be put on our wait list.”

This is Sustainable Wellesley’s fifth year offering milkweed plants. Please help us help the Monarchs by purchasing and planting milkweeds! Order your variety of organic milkweeds today here. The Incarnata are very healthy and sturdy and should do really well. These will go fast, so order soon. Plants should be arriving in late May from growers associated with Monarch Watch.

Please help us help the Monarchs by purchasing and planting milkweeds. Order your variety of organic milkweeds today here. The Incarnata are very healthy and sturdy and should do really well. These will go fast, so order soon. Plants should arrive in late May from growers associated with Monarch Watch.

Please note: you must pick up your plants. Don’t worry, they will arrive at a conveniently located at a home in Wellesley.

Milkweed For Monarch

Sustainable Wellesley is helping residents do their part to support the Monarch butterfly – by sourcing milkweed for you to put in your yard. Monarch populations are crashing and one reason is the lack of milkweed that Monarch caterpillars must eat to survive. And milkweed is a beautiful pink and white plant that attracts even more beautiful butterflies to your home.

Monarchs can produce four generations during one summer. After overwintering in the Oyamel forests of central Mexico the first three generations have life spans of two to six weeks and keep moving north. During this time they will mate and have the next generation that will continue the northward migration. The fourth generation is different and can live up to nine months, and this is the one that needs to find milkweed in your yard. These are also the butterflies that will migrate south for winter to either Mexico or southern California.

Monarch numbers have plummeted by 90 percent in recent years from both the loss of its overwintering grounds, and from the widespread elimination of milkweed in the United States by the use of herbicides like Roundup. This is where you come in: by planting milkweed in your (herbicide-free, pesticide-free) yard you provide the vital link in the Monarch lifecycle. Each year Sustainable Wellesley sources the correct species of milkweed for eastern Massachusetts (Asclepias incarnata) and makes it available to beautiful butterfly breeders like you.

Please send any questions to [email protected] Let us know how your plants are doing and if you’ve seen any butterflies