ITH THEIR ART DECO-HUED orange and black trimmed wings , monarch butterflies are the garden ’ s stylish head turners . Despite their flashy appearance , however , monarchs , which pollinate many types of wildflowers , need all the help they can get . According to the National Wildlife Federation , their population has plummeted some 90 percent since the 1990s , due to industrial agriculture , climate change and the use of pesticides .
Enter master gardener Sandra Cook . Cook , a self-acknowledged monarch mama , is captivated by these butterflies and has raised almost a thousand in the last four years in the habitat she ’ s created at her Warwick home .
In June , she keeps a watchful eye as they arrive from Mexico and lay eggs in her garden . She brings the eggs into her enclosed porch and waits for them to hatch as caterpillars and then morph into chrysalises , eventually emerging as monarchs . She also carefully washes milkweed leaves for them to savor . “ They eat like teenagers ,” she admits . “ Next year , I ’ m tagging them .” A day or so after they emerge , the butterflies are on their way north . In September they ’ re back , this time heading south , some traveling as far as 3,000 miles .
Tucked in a corner of the garden , Cook ’ s waystation is just one feature in her recent transition to an outdoor oasis of native plants , part of a growing movement that promotes biodiversity and a compatible habitat . It ’ s her effort to make her space self-sustaining ,
56 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l MARCH 2022