Master Gardener Suzanne Clark will give a presentation with photos on Monarch butterflies at the Valley of the Moon Garden Club meeting on Thursday, October 5. The Monarch’s population is dwindling and these valuable pollinators need help from home gardeners to survive and thrive.
Clark has been studying and saving Monarch butterflies for twenty years. She will cover basic anatomy from the caterpillar to butterfly stages, their life cycle, diet, plants they need for nectar, and their spectacular long distance migration.
Her caterpillar–to-butterfly tent will be on site to watch the growth and metamorphosis of these beautiful creatures from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly.
Clark has been a gardener all of her life and has gardened in Germany, Taiwan, England, Zimbabwe, as well as in the United States. While living in Maryland near Chesapeake Bay she raised Monarch caterpillars on Milkweed plants as her garden became a Way Station for the organization Monarch Watch. In 2012, she moved to Petaluma and became a Sonoma County Master Gardener where she has continued to create wildlife habitat gardens.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Sonoma Veterans’ Memorial Building, 126 First Street West. It is free for club members and five dollars for guests. A plant raffle and refreshments follow the meeting. For questions, call 935-8986.
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