Butterflies in the garden

Today was a great day for butterflies in the garden.  We had to add 3 more pussytoes to the garden since the caterpillars wiped out the existing plants in their quest to grow big and strong.  It was fun to see them find the new plants and move over.  I think, after more research, that they are American Lady caterpillars.  I believe that some of them crawled away to make their chrysalides - I read that they don't make them on the host plant.  We will have to peruse the garden and see if we can find a few, although they may have even left the garden. They crawl quickly!  I wouldn't be surprised if they are all gone by tomorrow. I am glad we got a good look today.

We had 3 of our classroom monarch chrysalides eclose today - 2 in grade 2, 1 in kindergarten.  Both classes came out to the learning garden to release the butterflies before the end of the day.  Two took to the skies immediately, and one hung out on the anise hyssop for a bit (giving us a nice close look) before flying away.  The kindergartners in particular loved looking at the garden caterpillars after the release.