What if you started out as a caterpillar and ended up as a butterfly? It’s called metamorphosis and you can watch it happen in your own garden …

1. A butterfly lays its egg on a plant, and soon out pops a tiny caterpillar .…
2. it grows and grows as its munches and crunches its way through the leaves until ….
3. the caterpillar transforms itself into a chrysalis and ….
4. a few days later out hatches a butterfly!
5. The butterfly finds a mate and then lays more eggs

and so it goes on – the circle of life!  

Monarch caterpillar eat lots of different flowers, but they have an absolute favourite - the swan plant.  If you want lots of monarch butterflies, grow lots of swan plants! You can buy plants in pots or grow your own from seed. 

Grow swan plants from seed

1. Fill a seed tray or punnet with Black Magic Seed Raising mix.
2. Scatter the seeds over the mix and then sprinkle a fine layer of seed raising mix over the top.
3. Place them in a warm place indoors.
4. Keep the mix moist with as you watch your seedlings grow (hint: keep a mist spray water bottle handy).
5. When your seedlings are big enough to handle, plant them into bigger pots, or in sunny garden soil.
6. Feed them with liquid fertiliser to help them grow fast and strong.

Warning: Swan plants are poisonous! Don’t eat them unless you are a caterpillar.

TIP: Cover your baby plants with netting to stop the butterflies laying their eggs too soon. Or remove some of the eggs from baby plants. If you get too many hungry caterpillars they can gobble up all the leaves before the plants get a chance to grow!

Interesting….

Just as you grow out of your clothes, caterpillars grow out of their skin! A monarch caterpillar ‘moults’ its old skin and grows a new one five times! It actually reabsorbs most of its old skin, but look closely and you might see the thin layer of skin that falls off.

All this growing and moulting and they only live for about two weeks. No wonder they eat so much! 

Did you know?

New Zealand has at least 20 different native butterfly. There are not as many as there used to be because of chemical sprays, wasps and the loss of their habitats. Butterfly enthusiasts are working hard to bring butterflies back to our cities. Find out more at nzbutterflies.org.nz

Fun facts:

• Butterflies taste with their feet!
• Butterflies have an all-liquid diet, usually nectar.  
• Butterflies drink from mud puddles – it’s a source of minerals!
• Butterflies can’t fly if they’re cold.

Butterflies love flowers!

Some of their favourites are asters, alyssum, bottlebrush, catmint, candytuft, chrysanthemum, cleome, cosmos, hebe, marigold, salvia, verbena and zinnias. Butterflies can’t see very far. A single plant might not have enough colour for them to see, so plant a big patch of colour!