Boston Flora

Tag: milkweed

  • Saturday, July 8, 12:30 pm – 3:30 pm Eastern – Milkweeds and Dogbanes, Online

    Milkweeds (Asclepias) are some of the most attractive and fragrant wildflowers, in addition to being magnets for butterflies and pollinators. Learn about their special relationship with monarch butterflies and their complex flower structure, ingenious pollination strategy, and protective chemical arsenal. This class will help you identify the common and rare species and recognize their surprising range of habitats. You will also learn tips for milkweed cultivation and discuss the dangers that threaten this native plant. The Native Plant Trust webinar on July 8 from 12:30 – 3:30 will be led by Neela de Zoysa. $45 for NPT members, $54 for nonmembers. Register HERE.

    Please note: We do not make video or audio recordings of classes or programs available after the fact, because NPT believes education is interactive, with instructors and students building a community and culture of learning. Some programs may be recorded strictly for instructor-training purposes. Please visit this page to review this and other FAQs about our policies.

  • Milkweed and Monarchs

    Preserving plants like milkweed is vital to protecting monarch butterflies and other pollinators. Milkweed is essential to the survival of monarch butterflies as monarch butterflies only lay their eggs on milkweed and caterpillars only eat milkweed plants. Other pollinators, including different bee and butterfly species, also pollinate on milkweed because it provides valuable nectar resources. You can find native milkweed growing along the Esplanade!


    The Esplanade Association has linked Unraveling the Monarch Butterfly Migration Mystery, a short video that shares the fascinating story on the migration of monarch butterflies and features how milkweed is essential to their species.

  • Monday, December 4, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Of Monarchs and Milkweed: A Story of Coevolution, Cultural History, and Conservation

    What if your host truly didn’t want you to visit? Found you intolerable, in fact, and didn’t want you to stay? You’d think that you’d be kicked out, but that isn’t the case with monarch butterflies and the common milkweed that supports their life cycle. Using striking visual imagery, evolutionary biologist Anurag Agrawal of Cornell University will speak about some of the natural history of monarchs and milkweed, the cultural importance of milkweed’s toxins, and the current predicament of monarch declines. The talk will be held in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum on Monday, December 4 at 7 pm. Dr. Agrawal is an award-winning scientist and educator, who has delved deeply into the coevolution of plants and animals. His book, Monarchs and Milkweed: A Migrating Butterfly, a Poisonous Plant, and Their Remarkable Story of Coevolution, will be available for purchase and signing. Fee: Free Arboretum member and student, $10 nonmember. Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

  • Saturday, November 3, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Making Alcohol-Free Spirits: Cordials, Shrubs and Syrups from Fruit and Flowers

    Learn how to make syrups and shrubs from cultivated fruits such as raspberries, strawberries, currants and rhubarb, at this Berkshire Botanical Garden class to be held Saturday, November 3, from 10 – noon. Also consider berry essences and elixirs made with native plants such as elder flowers, milkweed and aronia. This workshop will focus on how to make syrups and shrubs at home. Enjoy tasting various combinations of products and making shrubs from a 19th-century recipe. Each participant will take home a finished bottle of red currant, raspberry or strawberry shrub, a recipe for a vinaigrette-made shrub, as well as cocktail recipes for using shrubs.

    Participants should also bring wide-mouth, quart-size glass jars that they will fill in class, take home to age and then turn into shrub from a simple recipe included with each jar.

    Kate Keravian is owner of Bug Hill Farm, Ashfield, MA. They grow and make berry essences and elixirs made with native plants such as elder flowers, milkweed and aronia. Their signature concoction is “Kiss of Cassis” an alcohol-free cordial made from whole pressed black currants slightly sweetened with local honey. Their products are made from whole fruit and flowers.  Cost is $22 for BBG members, $27 for non-members, nad you may register at www.berkshirebotanical.org.