Bring 'Em Back: Friends of Monarch Trail Hold Milkweed Sale

America's most beloved butterfly needs some propping up – and particularly here in Milwaukee.

The monarch butterfly is a familiar summer sight, big and bright, orange and black, unmistakeable and unforgettable. But it's also troubled by its eating habits – and ours.

Monarchs lay their eggs only on milkweed plants, and those are becoming harder and harder for the butterflies to find, nationwide. The common milkweed plant used to succeed in foiling the farmer and popping up everywhere in our agricultural landscape.

Not anymore. Genetically modified Roundup-Ready crops can stand up to huge doses of pesticides that milkweeds can't – and monarch populations have been dropping since their introduction.

Monarch Watch, the national organization supporting the butterflies, and the Friends of the Monarch Trail on Wauwatosa's County Grounds, are encouraging everyone to plant milkweed at home and, where permitted, on public grounds to help support the population.

The County Grounds group is having a sale of milkweed plants from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday at Hansen Park on Underwood Creek Parkway. Nectar plants, also important for monarch and all butterfly populations, will also be sold. Plants will be priced from $2 to $7.

You can also just make a donation and ask that unsold plants be planted on public parkland, Department of Transportation property, or the UWM Innovation Campus Habitat Zone on the County Grounds. (You can also volunteer to help plant it.)

Visit and donate online at the Friends of the Monarch Trail.