A Late Bloomer

It has been an extraordinarily cool and wet May and June here in the Detroit Metro area. My little rain garden where I grow my swamp milkweed has been underwater much of the time. About 10 years ago we had a similar spring and I, in a fit of goofiness, planted cattails (they died out after about 2 years because the area was not consistently wet).

The swamp milkweed, in the best of seasons a late starter, is barely 1 foot tall. My wife, Miss Peggy, reported seeing a monarch flitting around these little plants last week. I am not even going to look for eggs as there is not enough plant growth to nurture caterpillars.

I would not normally do this but after the above photo was taken, I used a small submersible pump to remove the water so that the root area can be as warm as possible to encourage growth.