Appreciating nature, learning its needs to flourish and how to help it to be more sustainable forthefutureof our planet.

You can never go wrong with a book produced by The Xerces Society. Their website is one that I turn to time and time again. This book is spectacular.

The books covers the basics of the life of a monarch and creating monarch habitats. It then advances to the plants monarch need, starting with a full education on milkweeds. Non-milkweed plants, wild flowers, trees, shrubs, and vines as sources of nectar are also included. My favorite part of the book is the ‘plant profiles.’ For each plant, there is a standard profile that includes exposure, soil moisture, bloom time, uses, companion species, growing range, and great photos. One can quickly look through the profiles to find flowers that are good for their region, and then make decisions based on exposure and soil moisture. I have quickly discovered new flowers I must try!

https://patch405.com/2020/11/03/book-review-by-candlelight/

We have been tagging monarchs for the past two years and this year build an enclosure to raise them. This book gives great information on all things monarch and especially their favorite and necessary food-milkweed. Great resource. Planning on adding some of the plants detailed in my garden.

Excellent book with much more than a plant list. The opening sections have detailed information about monarchs, their life cycles and their migration. The bulk of the book is devoted to the plants. Each plant has a picture, often more than one, basic care information, a range map, and lots of detailed information about where to plant it.

For those wishing to create gardens to attract or feed monarchs, this book is a must have.

A beautiful book with so much information about how we can help the monarchs in their annual journey. It was also eye opening in the sense that I just didn't realize how many strains of milkweed there are.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

Incredibly thorough and interesting - who knew there were so many types of milkweed? Loved all of the different plants outlined, but I do wish the region was listed on the initial page of each entry as it was disappointing to find a plant I wanted to try only to turn the page and see it wasn't doable in my area.

I have butterfly bushes as is, with mixed results. But I’m definitely very motivated to attract monarchs and their friends. This reference is a very detailed and thorough assembly of plants you would look to own if you want to attract monarch butterflies. This book definitely gives me the confidence that I would succeed in time. Nice work!

This is a great resource for gardeners looking to grow more monarch-friendly plants.

We have several stands of milkweed on our property just for the monarchs and our kids have raised monarchs for many years, bringing in leaves with tiny eggs or caterpillars that we house in homemade butterfly houses. We care for them with fresh milkweed leaves each day and watch as they grow bigger and eventually form chrysalises, then watch them transform inside (you can see their wings forming inside towards the end of the time) until they emerge. They spend the morning pumping and drying their wings, and then we carefully release them outside. They often hang around perched happily on the kids' fingers for many minutes before they fly away, and it's a pretty magical thing to be part of. Even if you don't raise them inside, having a yard full of monarchs is pretty magical, and they really need our help these days.

This book starts with information about monarchs, then moves on to profiling milkweeds. Of the 100 plants to feed the monarch, the first 31 are all species of milkweeds since they are the primary host plant of the caterpillar. From there, there are nectar producing plants that attract the butterflies, all of which are native and easy to grow. Zones are not listed, but maps show the natural range of each plant. Growing information and photos are provided for each plant, which are also great flowers for other polinators (and are frequently quite pretty, too).

All in all, it's a very thorough, helpful and well researched guide.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

I admit to not knowing much about butterflies before reading this one. Yeah, butterflies are pretty and we should support them, but it was actually a newfound love of plants that drew me into this book. I'm so glad it did. I learned a ton here, including about the butterfly life cycle and their epic migration. The main draw here is the plants that butterflies, and other pollinators, need. I was encouraged by the author's description of how easy it is to help - if everyone who reads this book plants even a couple of supportive plants, we can make life just a little easier for butterflies and other pollinators. Count me in!
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to preview a digital version of this book.

What a great book to learn more about a Monarch butterfly and how to preserve it for the future. Lovely pictures and easily written. Everything you have to know is in this book!

I never new there was so many types of milkweeds and I thought that monarchs only eat milkweed. The plants are nicely indexed.

I was really expecting this to be more like an encyclopedia about what Monarchs eat, not a life history of the butterfly, where they live, what climate they enjoy, etc.

It was very interesting, but the title is misleading.

I received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.