Who doesn't love butterflies so when this book came available to read and review I just had to request it.
WoW what a beautiful book 100 Plants to Feed the Monarch by The Xerces Society was. This book is spectacular. illustrated throughout and a must of you just want to learn more about these beautiful delicate flying insect.
This book is is an accessible practical *usable* guide to steps home gardeners can take to protect and enhance habitat for all butterflies specifically the monarch butterfly and other pollinators and we all need to do our part to save these pollinators in the future.

I highly recommend this beautiful book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

For anyone who loves butterflies and wants to help preserve a species in peril, this book is fantastic. It starts with information about the life of a monarch butterfly and how to build habitat for them. The next section gives details for flowers that can help save the monarch butterfly. There are more than 30 types of milkweed, which is vital for the caterpillars to develop properly. After that, there are many native butterfly feeding plants that provide nectar. The section on flowers show the range in which the flowers are native, tells which other species use the flowers, and offers cultivation information to help you select which varieties to grow and how to care for them properly. The flower section also shows a full color photograph of each variety. All in all, I think this is a very interesting book, and I would recommend adding it to your library if you care about the environment and creating habitat for the dwindling Monarch butterfly population.

Perfect for gardeners who want to help monarchs (and other pollinators) on their migration! I know what to look for to plant in my garden!!

This is a outstanding body of work about the Monarchs and how we can save them . . I found it very sensible with a exemplary amount of information that will be helpful for any home gardener. This is a a book I will highly recommend and refer to for information in the future. Very well done and would be a excellent guide for students as well. Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley.

An interesting and quick read. It's very specific to a very specific butterfly in a specfic area so it might not have wide appeal but if you lke butterflies you'll find this interesting.

100 Plants to Feed the Monarch: Create a Healthy Habitat to Sustain North America's Most Beloved Butterfly by The Xerces Society is currently scheduled for release on April 13 2021. The plight of the monarch butterfly has captured public attention and sparked widespread interest in helping to save their dwindling populations. In this in-depth portrait of the monarch butterfly—covering its life cycle, its remarkable relationship with milkweed, its extraordinary migration, and the threats it now faces due to habitat loss and climate change—detailed instructions on how to design and create monarch-friendly landscapes are enriched by guidance on observing and understanding butterfly behavior and habits. Following the model of their previous best-selling book, 100 Plants to Feed the Bees, the Xerces Society provides at-a-glance profiles of the plant species that provide monarchs with nourishment. The plants, which are all commercially available, range from dozens of species of milkweed—the only food of monarch caterpillars—to numerous flowering plants, shrubs, and trees that provide nectar for the adult butterfly, including those that bloom in late season and sustain monarchs in their great migration. Gorgeous photographs of monarchs and plants, plus illustrations, maps, and garden plans, make this a visually engaging guide.

100 Plants to Feed the Monarch is a well written and researched read. I learned a great deal about the monarch butterfly and the hazards they face in today's world. I think the information is presented in a very engaging and readable format and that it is really for interested readers of all ages, not just for adults. The information given about each of the kinds of milkweed and companion plants was well formatted and easy to understand. The book really helped me formulate a plan for my backyard, and the plants I would like to grow there in order to help the monarch butterflies thrive, and help other pollinators as well. The addition of resources used in the writing of the book and for readers to use in order to do further research made me even happier with the book. I think avid gardeners, those looking to help the environment, and those that just want to see more butterflies on their properties will all get a great deal from this book.

Written concisely and from a beginners standpoint which makes it accessible to all. Looking forward to planting some native milkweed this spring.

ARC from publisher via NetGalley but the opinions are my own.

100 Plants to Feed the Monarch is an accessible practical *usable* guide to steps home gardeners can take to protect and enhance habitat for butterflies and other pollinators (specifically the monarch butterfly, but there's lots of practical info here for other species). Due out 13th April 2021 from Storey, it's 288 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.

Written and presented by the Xerces Society, this is a really well written guide which contains concrete practical steps to help protect and enhance habitat for butterflies. The introductory chapters contain a good layman-accessible explanation of the monarch's life cycle and why habitat is shrinking and populations are being lost as well as a good guide to designing, improving, and expanding monarch-friendly habitat.

The second section of the book contains the plant profiles. One main chapter covers milkweeds (obviously very important - it's their main food source), as well as secondary sections detailing other important habitat plants grouped thematically: non-milkweed host plants, nectar plants, and nectar producing trees, vines, and shrubs. Each of the 100 plant family profiles includes color photographs, genus/group names, descriptions, culture requirements (light, soil, blooming season), recommended species, growing range map, and other invertebrate species for whom the plant(s) are important in terms of food or habitat.

This is a very well put together, graphically appealing, useful guide. Xeriscaping and using more native plants in garden designs have gotten more attention lately and over the last few years of incorporating more wildflowers in my own home garden beds I've been amazed how many more butterflies and native pollinators I've seen. It's also been rewarding from a time-saving standpoint because the native plants and wildflowers I've invited into my garden are perfectly adapted to life in the area as well as providing an important ecological bonus in the form of food or shelter for local wildlife.

Five stars. This would be a superlative selection for public or school library acquisition, home library, gifting to a gardening friend, for gardening groups/allotments/community gardens, or maker's groups. Really nicely done.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

The Xerces Society is a group dedicated to conservation of invertebrates, such as bees and butterflies. This book focuses on creating habitats for monarch butterflies. Though many gardeners know of the value of the milkweed plant to the survival of this species (the only food for caterpillars), there are other plants that are attractive to the adult butterflies.
The first chapter focuses on the life cycle of the monarch, and will provide most readers with facts they didn't know. For instance, I had no idea that they lay their eggs one per leaf. It also discusses the reasons why the species is declining. The second chapter describes how to create good monarch habitat. The next section of the book contains plant profiles. An entire chapter details 31 different species of milkweed, followed by a chapter with three non-milkweed host plant profiles. The next two chapters contain profiles of plants that provide nectar for the adult butterflies, organized into "native wildflowers" and "trees, shrubs, and vines." Appendices include resources such as community science projects and reference materials.
I was shocked at the size of this book! I thought it might be a pamphlet-sized guide with the basics. However, it is very complete, covering both the science behind preservation of the monarch and providing detailed plant profiles. This would be an invaluable resource for anyone who lives in monarch territory. Sadly, here in the Pacific Northwest, it's a rare sighting due to the lack of native-growing milkweed.

This book is an excellent resource for beginner and experienced gardeners looking to expand their Monarch Butterfly gardens. I have been cultivating a Monarch Butterfly specific garden for years so I always love a new book that can show me some more plants to pick up. Bonus to this book that shows you 100 plants and the areas they grow best in (across North America). I am so pumped to so get some more plants to add to my Monarch Butterfly garden!

I highly recommend this book. It has an abundance of good information, is easy to read and set up in a manageable way. The content is also amazing. What a valuable resource.

Four out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

What a fantastic resource! As both an at-home Butterfly Garden enthusiast and a professional Horticulturist advocating for pollinator support, this book was a fantastic read, and excellent resource. Every section was informative with far more detail than I usually find in books of this nature. As a Canadian, I had NO IDEA there were so many species of Milkweed! It was very interesting to read about the plant details and habitats that the Monarchs visit after leaving our region.

Having previously been impressed by “100 Plants to Feed the Bees” I also enjoyed this publication from The Xerces Society and will be adding a print copy to my reference collection. I do hope the book is going to be proofread visually as a number of images have watermarks, and some of the layouts seem incorrect. I received this free digital ARC from NetGalley and I am not compensated for this review.

This book is like Storey's other book 100 plants to feed the bees. I like the format that it set up in.

Excellent title! This is a book designed to help encourage more milkweed growth due to overuse of pesticides. We are killing pollinators.

What did I like? This book has an urgent message that needs to be heard. Food growth has taken an incredible turn as over use of pesticides are killing our natural pollinators. In this book the Monarch butterflies main food source are milk weeds. Drastic pesticide use has killed a large amount of this butterflies food source. The book encourages every day people to check out local milk weeds and plant to help the Monarch thrive.

Would I recommend or buy? I’d definitely recommend.... although we need to really buy local milk weed to plant so as to not screw up the natural order of the Monarch butterfly. I found the book to be thought provoking and informative! I’d love to get some butterflies in my garden and recall many of these wild plants as a child in NY.

Five stars for a wealth of information! I received a complimentary copy to read and voluntarily left a review! Kudos to the author!

**I received and voluntarily read an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

With so many butterflies and bees becoming endangered in this day and age, it's great to see a book that can help lessen the decline of these populations.

Overall, it's a great book if you've got an area where you can plant some flowers to help Mother Nature out.

A well researched], well-written reference. which is a must-have for anyone wishing to create habitats for the monarch. It covers all regions and all stages of the monarch. Job well done.

100 Plants to Feed the Monarch has quite a bit of useful information. If monarch habitats are a new concept for you, you'll find an overview of the various kinds of milkweed, practical suggestions for laying out a monarch feeding area, and reviews of additional plants that would be useful additions.

I read this on a Kindle, and the book is not ready for release in its current form. The formatting is terrible; photos overlap or are missing altogether, sometimes obscuring the text, and paragraphs are cut and disjointed, making it hard to follow. Some strange terminology is used - Monarch butterflies are called "animals", which may be technically correct in that they belong to the animal kingdom, but it's clunky.

Overall, it's a helpful addition to a collection on butterfly gardens. The publisher needs to FIX THE FORMATTING, or it will be discarded by the reader.

A good gardener's book and those who do love butterflies. A decent amount of information about different plants (and areas they grow). A nice introduction to the monarch.

This is a must read book for anyone who wants to help the Monarch thrive. It is full of information on plants and needs for the butterfly. I will refer back to this book often. Thank you Storey Publishing via NetGalley for the ARC copy of this book.

I really appreciated this book as a native plant gardener and naturalist. Too often plants for butterflies are either naturalized species or ones that are just very prevalent in the garden industry. I loved how detailed the list of plant species got and wish we could have a regional version, too!

A must have for any native plant and butterfly gardener!

Thank you for the opportunity to review this book. I enjoyed looking at the gorgeous visuals and learning more about plants, insects, and nature. Particularly, I was a fan of learning how to craft my outdoor space to help out the butterflies. I am a fan of them and we always have tons in the nice seasons. I have always wanted to know what I could put in my gardens to feed/attract them, and this book was obviously perfect for this. This book was actually pretty cool in both learning about plants AND butterflies. I'm hoping to purchase this book for a handy guide in the upcoming seasons.