Contributed by E. Dianne Campbell
Visitors to Pleasant Grove Park can experience monarch butterflies up close and personal beginning June 20.
The butterfly habitat, specially curated and tended by volunteers, allows visitors to see all phases of the monarch’s life cycle, from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to adult butterfly.
The monarch has drawn widespread concern due to its declining numbers.
In Fluvanna, Master Gardeners have joined with Rivanna Master Naturalists to create a public habitat focused on monarch conservation. Now in its second year, the program offers visitors a chance to see butterflies complete their life cycle and reproduce by laying eggs again.
Visitors may gently tour the greenhouse, which has been repurposed to meet the monarch’s needs for temperature, humidity, host plants and nectar plants.
Volunteers discuss the butterflies’ activity, point out newly laid eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalises, and identify the plants that support the species. Last year, more than 1,000 visitors attended the free program.
The monarch habitat is open to the public Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Age-appropriate group programs for children, teens, adults, and seniors are also offered Wednesday mornings by reservation through the Virginia Cooperative Extension office. Reservations may be made by emailing bredman@vt.edu. Information is also available on the Fluvanna Master Gardeners website. The program is free.
The summer habitat is an extension of the Butterfly Garden at Pleasant Grove Park, one of the first dedicated pollinator gardens in the state. The garden serves as a living classroom, with plants designed to attract and support pollinators, including bees, insects, moths, birds, bats and a wide range of butterflies, including Virginia’s official state butterfly, the eastern tiger swallowtail.
Plants have been selected and placed to meet the host and nectar needs of pollinators. Master Gardener volunteers regularly tend the gardens and paths, which welcome visitors year-round.
The goal of the monarch experience is to raise awareness of the need to support and preserve habitat and food sources for pollinators. Guests will have the opportunity to tour the garden with volunteers, who will discuss how pollinators sustain the food chain, what habitat they need, and how individuals can help support pollinators in even small ways.
More information on Fluvanna Master Gardeners’ activities and events is available at fluvannamg.org.
