Vol. 20 Issue 3, Fall 2015 By Nan McCarry and Nancy Reaves, Audubon at Home Ambassadors Did you know that fall is a good time to plant native trees, shrubs and perennials? Planting in the fall gives roots plenty of time to develop before the hot days of summer roll around. Typically, fall-planted perennials will […]

Vol. 20, Issue 2, Summer 2015 By Donna Quinn Common Milkweed’s story is also a story about us, our values and how we live. Before the days of modern conveniences like grocery stores, it was considered a useful plant. It was eaten, although it is toxic and requires special preparation to be safe for human […]

Here’s an excellent article (with photos) that has the how to’s: http://nativeplantwildlifegarden.com/growing-native-perennials-from-seed/ Head out to your garden now and collect some seeds from your favorite plants — and see what comes up! 🙂    

Vol. 18 Issue 4, Winter 2013 By Emily Bzdyk In the late fall, plants die back and leaves litter the ground. As the weather turns cold and your backyard looks increasingly lifeless, you may be tempted to tidy up those garden beds. But there are many reasons why you should wait till “spring cleaning” time […]

Don Davis from Ontario passed along this great information – especially click on the video embedded in the article. Ilse shows how to collect milkweed seeds and how to plant them: Excellent article and video with Ilse Gebhard from a year ago,  illustrating how easy it is to plant a suitable area with milkweed seed. […]

Mona Miller put together this excellent video on how to collect Common Milkweed seeds with fantastic tips on how to do it without getting the fluff all over your house 🙂 httpv://youtu.be/fhjkC1Mbzlg

At the Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun, the largest fund raiser is the spring “Service Auction” in which members offer to provide services, such as swim lessons, theme dinners, wine tasting, child care, aerial tour of Loudoun in private plane, apartment in London, or anything that they have skills in and would like to share.  […]

Lori Berry led her troop, Cadette troop 458, in creating a wonderful Monarch Waystation right at the entry way to Morven  Park’s Carriage Museum.  This is a wonderful location because not only does it get good sun that the Monarchs and other pollinators and wildlife will enjoy but it also will be seen and enjoyed […]

Here’s one of the latest Monarch Waystations that was just created here in Loudoun!  What a wonderful design! On Saturday, June 22nd, Paxton staff and volunteers from our community created a butterfly-shaped Monarch Waystation. * The time series of photos show the steps taken to create our garden. With generous donations of native plants (milkweed and […]

Here’s a wonderful video from Cornell that talks about milkweed – the biological arms race between the plant and the animals that love it: httpv://youtu.be/WXHeqxf1kDE