Hammond Garden Club learns about monarch butterflies
Hello again to all the gardening aficionados! Hope you have missed us during those hot as Hades days this past summer! Don’t think I have ever felt the sweltering heat like I have this year!
But today I expected to look out my office window and see children outside playing in the wonderful FALL showers! The plants and trees are looking greener already in just one or two days of nice cooling rainfall!
We, the members of the Hammond Garden Club, are back at it again making great plans for the coming months, learning a lot and having so much fun doing it. In fact our first meeting was about monarch butterflies.
One of our members, Linda Ryan who is a state and national life garden club member, spoke about those “common tigers” – as they are sometimes called in different regions – who are in the family of Nymphalidae. They are also called milkweed, wanderer, black-veined brown or simply monarchs!
They are among the most familiar of North American butterflies and iconic pollinators, although not an especially effective pollinator of milkweeds. Their wings feature an easily recognizable black, orange and white-dotted pattern, with a wingspan of 3.5 to 4 inches.
We learned that one of the strange but helpful things about those white dots that surround the edge of their wings is to let other insects, birds, etc. know that they are toxic if eaten and may kill their predators.
In North America, monarchs overwinter in both Mexico and the California coast and can fly up to 2,700 miles. They don’t fly over water because they sleep at night and must nest on a bush or tree. They have no eyelids and sleep with their eyes open.
Each month from May to August, a new generation of monarchs emerge from eggs laid on milkweed, feed exclusively on milkweed and undergo a complete metamorphosis. That is why it is so important to grow milkweed in your gardens. However, adult monarchs do feed on the nectar of flowers for their nutrients unlike the larvae who only eat milkweeds.
We learned so very much about the beautiful monarchs from Linda’s report, making all of us want to plant milkweed and other natural flowering plants to help secure a home for one of the loveliest of God’s creatures. If America had a national butterfly, the monarch would undoubtedly be it (taken from “The Butterfly Garden” by Jerry Sedenko).
After members questions were answered, Chaplain Mary Thornhill asked for the opening prayer as we all bowed our heads in thanksgiving and then stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Immediately following, our delicious meals were served, all of which we ordered individually in advance, and as usual they all looked fantastic, prepared by Mary Monteleone and her crew of cooks and served by her wait staff at Oak Knoll Country Club.
President Jennifer Allen then asked for a motion to accept the minutes which had been emailed to everyone, and Treasurer Phyllis DiBenedetto gave her report for the funds of the club.
It was also reported that the Garden of the Month Award was given to Jerry and Yvette Dellucky in the Jefferson Court Subdivision and Hood Hyundai on North Morrison Boulevard received the Link Award.
New business as announced by Jennifer was to remember that the Fall District VI meeting will be on Oct. 25 and all forms should be turned in to Belle Oaks Garden Club by Oct. 11 accompanied with your check. She also said not to forget the joint meeting hosted by the Hammond Garden Club will be held on Feb. 7, 2024.
She then said the next meeting will be Oct. 11, and with no further items to be discussed the meeting was closed.
I would love to leave you with an excerpt from one of my books “The Butterfly Garden” by Jerry Sedenko: “If there is one creature on this planet that strikes the chord of fancy that dwells in all of us, surely it must be the butterfly. The ethereal nature and seemingly frivolous, elusive behavior of these insects speaks to our gentler, more romantic selves. Even scientists, departing from their usual no-nonsense approach, become sentimental when dealing with butterflies.”
The Hammond Garden Club is a proud member of the District VI, Louisiana Garden Club Federation Inc. and the Deep South Garden Clubs Inc., doing our best to unify and beautify our homes, gardens, our city and our nation every day to the best of our ability. God bless America, and God bless the City of Hammond!
by Linda Broussard
She is a member of the Hammond Garden Club