Milkweed, Butterflyweed Available to Save Monarch Butterflies

The Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa has milkweed and butterflyweed seed available to purchase! I just heard on Iowa Public Radio’s gardening show that garden stores are mostly sold out of milkweed and butterflyweed plants and seeds helpful to monarch butterflies, which are endangered by the loss of millions of acres of milkweed that sustained them in the past. I would have given up hope, but since our daughter, Sarah, joined the Seed Savers Exchange several years ago, I knew about them and tried to find some milkweed in their catalog. I couldn’t find milkweed right away, but I joined, and then called their customer service number at 563-382-5990 in Decorah, Iowa. The item number for red milkweed is 1106 and for prairie butterflyweed it’s 0284. The plants are colorful and bright. I think I will enjoy them as much as the butterflies will.

Membership in the Seed Savers Exchange costs $30 a year for students and seniors, and a little more for others. Membership gives you a 10% discount on each item. If you spend at least $40 on an order, shipping is free. You can find organic catnip on the exchange, which I bought, and organic vegetables, herbs, and flowers, many of them old-fashioned flowers like bachelor’s buttons and so on. I found a flower called bee’s balm because bees like it. Bees need saving, too, of course, due to Colony Collapse Disorder.

There are various prairie flower and prairie grass mixes which aren’t quite available for sale yet, but they will be later in April. I’ll buy those for my husband’s prairie patch. They have “dry” mixes and “wet” mixes in both prairie flowers and grasses. For the front yard we’d need a dry mix and for the backyard we’d need wet, though it’s not as wet as it usually is because we’re in a drought. Lake Conzemius didn’t form this spring. We need more rain.