Less than 2 weeks after the horrific attacks here in Christchurch The Butterfly Musketeers visited the beautiful children at Linwood Ave School. Linwood Ave School is about a minute away from the Mosque where our beloved brothers were shot in a cowardly act whilst praying. We wanted to give back to the commUNITY, so straight away emailed the school to see if we could come along and do a few butterfly talks. We just felt we had to do something after hearing about what the children went through. It pulled at my heart strings and I wanted to visit them and bring them some joy.

Asclepias Swan Plant

• Botanical Name: Asclepias physocarpa/Gomphocarpus physocarpa

The Swan Plant is loved by many Kiwis, as it’s the host plant of the Monarch Caterpillar, which lives on the plant for approximately 2 weeks eating as many leaves as possible, before transforming into a beautiful Monarch Butterfly.

What happens when I run out of Swan Plants?

Buy more or simply before you start raising monarchs, make sure you have sufficient amount of plants ready. You can never have enough, the key is to cover your seedlings and your plants that you have purchased and let them grow to a decent size before exposing them to the monarchs to lay eggs on. I would recommend an average size plant of 50cm per a caterpillar. Regularly check on your plants and look for eggs each day on the under side of each leaf, any excess eggs remove and cull. As its nicer than seeing starving caterpillars running around in the long run when you have no more plants and making you feel worried and having to make emergency dashes to garden centres.

I wanted a special Monarch Butterfly dress for a long time and I knew Jo Kidd was amazing and I just had to wait for the right time for the dress to be designed and created and Jo didn’t disappoint.  August I finally got my new amazing Butterfly dress from Jo Kidd Couture, an amazing talented designer. I cannot wait to do talks in my dress from now on. Continue reading “Butterfly Goddess” →

Kia ora koe!   Synchronicities happen all the time in our life! I wanted a blank wall in the central city where I could get my artist to paint a Monarch mural.  I had the funds ready which were raised within the community, but didn’t know where to start looking! I wanted a mural in the city so all children could have wings and stand in front of the mural and have their photo taken so they could spread their wings, rather than murals on private grounds within schools.

I grates me to print such a title, but sadly its true.   Monarch’s butterflies are here to teach us many things and they need our help in boosting their numbers.  Imagine living in a world where there are no butterflies?  Today we are living in a world where there are so many endangered animals and species, because we have taken away their habitats, killed for food or hunted for money which has led to some animals becoming extinct. Continue reading “Monarchs in Decline & Sustainability” →

This September 2018 I plan to share HEAPS of packets of Swan Plants & Acelplcia seeds from Yates NZ. That’s 1000’s of extra Swan Plants around the Christchurch area for the Monarch butterflies to lay their eggs on and feed off.  This will give a massive boost for the Monarch butterfly population in our environment this coming summer.   Continue reading “PROJECT SWAN PLANT 2018” →