THE COASTAL GARDENER:

Each year, about in October, monarch butterflies become especially abundant in coastal Orange County gardens. The large orange butterflies with black highlights can be seen bounding through gardens or floating from tree to tree on just about any warm, sunny fall or winter day.

Gardeners, by planting the monarch’s food plant, can entice this beautiful and famous butterfly to spend more time in your garden, and you will be able to experience its entire life cycle — egg, larva, pupa and adult. It’s quite simple.

A typical monarch’s life cycle lasts only one to two months. It begins as an egg, always laid on milkweed, it’s only food plant. The larva, or caterpillar, feeds on the milkweed until it morphs into a pupa; in butterfly terminology this stage is more properly called a chrysalis. Finally, it reaches the adult stage, mates, lays more eggs and finally dies.

However, when summer is over and temperatures begin to drop, a special generation of monarch butterflies is born. These unique monarchs, called the Methuselah generation, have a special role. These fall monarchs must travel to a warm winter site, where they will rest, feed, mate and, early next spring, begin their travels back North or East, laying eggs on milkweed plants on the way. Unlike their parents and their parents’ parents, which only lived a few weeks, these migratory Methuselah monarchs live up to six months in coastal Orange County.

Often, winter resting sites, always within a mile or two of the ocean, are used over and over by countless generations of monarchs. Amazingly, those monarchs that travel back to the same Orange County garden or stand of trees each winter have never been there before. It was their great-great-grandparents that undertook the courageous trip the year before. In still undiscovered ways, the Methuselah monarch has no problem returning to the same place where its ancestors hibernated the year before.

Many people are now familiar with the massive monarch colonies that descend each winter upon a few isolated concentrations in the forests of central Mexico. Millions of monarch butterflies cover the trees in these areas. But the butterflies that comprise these huge aggregations are all from the Midwest and eastern portions of North America. The monarchs that we see in our Orange County gardens are not part of this Mexican spectacle; our monarchs are from the western areas of North America.

For people who want to attract butterflies to their garden, the addition of even a single milkweed plant may be all that is necessary. In the movie “Field of Dreams,” Shoeless Joe Jackson tells Ray (Kevin Costner), “If you build it, he will come.” But for the gardener who adds a milkweed plant to their garden, “If you plant it, they will come.”

The best and easiest milkweed to grow in a local garden is Asclepias curassivica, with numerous common names including bloodflower, scarlet milkweed, sunset flower and silkweed. Its leaves are thinner and smoother than some other milkweed species and seem to be preferred by monarch larvae. It is a rather handsome plant, adorned nearly year-round with clusters of small flowers, usually in shades of red and orange, but occasionally yellow. The medium-sized perennial plant is in bloom nearly year-round in Orange County gardens, the long stems are excellent for cutting, and the flowers have a long vase life. The plant does reseed easily, but with a little diligence, I find the volunteers fairly easy to eliminate.

For those using only native plants in their gardens, hunt for one of our California-native milkweeds, including Asclepias speciosa, Asclepias fascicularis, Asclepias californica or Asclepias eriocarpa.

All milkweeds have a milky sap that can be a skin irritant and the poisonous foliage, while providing the monarch with a taste that predators find disagreeable, can be poisonous to people.

Many milkweeds, especially Asclepias curassivica, are quite tolerant of different soil types, even heavy clay, and grow well in dry, moist or even wet soils. This is an excellent time of the year to find Asclepias curassivica in local nurseries, usually in full bloom.

When planted in a deep pot or a sunny garden, it won’t be long until monarch butterflies are seen visiting the flowers and laying eggs on the leaves. A couple of weeks later, a close inspection will yield the plump larva with black and yellow stripes.

If you plant it, they will come!

ASK RON

Question: When do Amaryllis bulbs arrive in nurseries? I’ve seen freesias, narcissus, iris, ranunculus, anemones and others, but no Amaryllis yet.

Newport Beach

Answer: Amaryllis (actually Hippeastrum) always arrive a bit later than the rest of the fall flower bulbs. They should arrive to nurseries in the next 10 days or so. Shop early, while the selection is the best, and buy the largest bulbs you can find. With flower bulbs, the bigger the better.

ASK RON your toughest gardening questions, and the expert nursery staff at Roger’s Gardens will come up with an answer. Please include your name, phone number and city, and limit queries to 30 words or fewer. E-mail [email protected], or write to Plant Talk at Roger’s Gardens, 2301 San Joaquin Hills Road, Corona del Mar, CA 92625.

RON VANDERHOFF is the nursery manager at Roger’s Gardens, Corona del Mar