St Charles County Master Gardeners

The Monarch Waystation garden, just south of the greenhouse, offers an example of a Certified Monarch Waystation, part of the Monarch Watch conservation project for Monarch butterflies.

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To be a certified waystation, the garden needs both host plants as food for Monarch caterpillars and nectar plants offering nourishment for adult Monarch butterflies.  The garden has Milkweed plants which are the only plant where Monarchs butterflies lay there eggs and the only food Monarch caterpillars eat. The waystation contains several Missouri native plants that offer nectar for adult butterflies. To insure a good supply of nectar sources, some long blooming annuals are also planted in the beds. The first of the north bound Monarchs will pass by as early as mid-April. The last fall migrators will stop to nectar even into early November. Our goal is to have blooms throughout the butterfly season spring through fall.