In response to the lady who wrote re food plants for monarch butterflies (Help monarch migration with milkweed, Letters, March 29).
These butterflies do not, in fact, come to the Island and grace our gardens.
OK… apparently one was seen in Victoria in 2014, and there is the occasional very sporadic record going back to 1890, (according to Mike Yip’s book on the butterflies of Vancouver Island).
I suspect she is confusing them, as many do, with swallowtail butterflies, of which there are three species commonly occurring around here, but no amount of milkweed planting will help them, as their host plants are quite different.
If she, or anyone else, would like to attract more of them to her garden, my tip, based on my garden, is to plant delphiniums.
The adults love to come to them as nectar plants.
Luke Downs
Whiskey Creek