The Austin monarch guide
Get monarchs to breed in your own Austin yard.
Spring monarchs arrive in March. Plant your milkweed now. This guide shows you which milkweed, where it goes, and what to do each month.
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- The three native milkweeds to plant in Austin, and the one to leave at the nursery
- A month-by-month Austin calendar, so you know what to do this month
- A printable journal, spotter card and caterpillar ruler for your child
Look inside the guide
164 illustrated pages. Here are six of them.
Plant these, skip these
The three native milkweeds for Austin, the flowers that feed the butterflies, and what to leave at the nursery.
Three yard plans, drawn to scale
A sunny bed, a fence strip, or pots on a patio. Pick the one that fits.
What to do this month
The Austin calendar, month by month, with the notes on where each date comes from at the back.
Is it a problem?
What you might see on your milkweed, possible reasons, and what to do.
Your child’s journal
One page a day, from the first egg to the last butterfly. Crayons count.
Cut out and use
A spotter card and a life-size caterpillar ruler, ready to print.
Spring is egg season. Fall is when you plant.
Monarchs come through Austin twice a year.
Austin’s main spring egg season runs from about mid-March to about the end of April. Monarch caterpillars eat only milkweed, so a monarch mother lays her eggs on it. A yard with no milkweed gets no monarch eggs.
Nursery milkweed set out in October or November has the winter to root. Seed sown now is for later years.
- Main egg season, about mid-March to the end of April
- Passing through, late September to early November
- The busiest three weeks
- Planting season for milkweed: fall
Where the monarchs are right nowIn spring they lay eggs here. In fall most only pass through.
The milkweed to plant in your Austin yard
The guide gives you three recommended native milkweeds for Austin, each matched to a kind of ground. All three want full sun.
Antelope horns
Asclepias asperula
For sun and rocky ground.
Green milkweed
Asclepias viridis
At home in clay.
Zizotes milkweed
Asclepias oenotheroides
For the dry spot by the fence.
Leave the red-and-yellow one at the nursery
The guide recommends skipping tropical milkweed and planting native milkweed. The guide’s reason: where it stays green through a mild winter, monarchs breed on it out of season and spread OE, a monarch parasite. Already have some? The guide shows you how to cut it back, and when.
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You don’t need a big yard
You don’t need a big yard: a sunny strip or a few deep pots can hold milkweed. What you need is sun, six hours or more.
- A sunny bed, 10 by 10 feet
- A fence strip, 3 by 20 feet
- A patio: seven large pots in the sunniest corner
The guide gives you three to-scale layouts and a shopping list.
Turn over the top leaf. Here’s what you’re looking for.
The egg
Cream, about the size of a pinhead, with fine ridges. Usually one to a plant, under a leaf near the top. It hatches in 3 to 5 days.
The caterpillar
The caterpillar eats its own eggshell first, then milkweed, and grows through five sizes.
Five sizes of one caterpillar
Drawn to scale. Slide to grow it.
The chrysalis
Jade green, with a band of gold dots. On the last day you can see orange and black wings inside.
The butterfly
It pumps its crumpled wings full, zips its tongue into one straw, and tastes leaves with its feet.
In warm weather, egg to butterfly takes about three to five weeks; a cool spring can take seven weeks or longer.
Give your child the job of looking
Hand your child a magnifying glass and turn the leaves over together.
The guide comes with a printable journal: a box to draw what they see, a line for its length, and the weather. On the last page they color in one small monarch for every monarch you see this year. A day with nothing to see still gets a page.
Monarch caterpillars don’t sting. A grown-up identifies it first and supervises; handle as little as possible, never while it is molting.
- “Let the caterpillar come to you.”
- “A still caterpillar is busy.”
- “A chrysalis is for looking.”
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Planted milkweed and never saw a caterpillar?
Keep it growing.
The guide’s “Is it a problem?” chart gives possible reasons, and what to do about each. Possible reasons include plants that weren’t up yet when the females arrived in early March, a slow year, or a monarch that just didn’t find you.
Check the plant, too. Is it one of the three recommended native milkweeds for Austin? Was it treated with an insecticide the plant absorbs? The guide lists the names to look for on the label.
Everything you get for $17
One illustrated PDF guide, made for Austin-area yards. Read the quick start tonight. Print the pages you need at home.
- Start in ten minutes. The quick start gives you the two monarch visits, the three things that matter most, and your first year in one list.
- Buy the right plants the first time. Antelope horns, green milkweed and zizotes, the flowers to plant beside them, and what to leave at the nursery.
- Plant them in the right place. Three to-scale layouts and a shopping list, for a sunny bed, a fence strip or patio pots.
- Know what to do each month. An Austin month-by-month calendar, and the whole year on one sheet for the fridge.
- Know what you’re looking at. Every stage drawn, egg to butterfly, with what to do at each one, and how to tell a monarch from its look-alike, the queen.
- Know what to do when something looks wrong. A chart of what you might see, with possible reasons and what to do.
- Give your child a real job. A printable observation journal, house rules for little hands, and lines to read aloud in every section.
- Six print-and-cut pages. A spotter card, a caterpillar ruler, a tally strip, the year on one sheet, a shopping list and plant markers.
$17$17, one time. Applicable sales tax extra. Downloadable PDF.
Full refund within 30 days, for any reason, by email. Refund policy
Print it for your household, or print copies for one class you teach. Buying for a grandchild? It makes a lovely gift, and something to do together next spring.
Sold by Supertrained Inc. Your card statement will show “SUPERTRAINED* HOMETOWN”.
Before you buy
Is it too late this year?
No. Fall is the best time to set out nursery milkweed in Austin. Nursery milkweed set out in October or November has the winter to root. Starting later? The calendar says what to do in every month.
What if no monarchs come?
Spring monarchs look for young milkweed to lay on from about mid-March to the end of April. The guide shows you which milkweed to plant, where it goes, and when to plant it for that season. If the guide isn’t right for you, email us within 30 days for a full refund.
Where do I buy the plants?
At a native plant sale if you can, by the Latin name. The guide gives you the two questions to ask, and what to plant if nobody has zizotes.
Can my kids touch the caterpillars?
Monarch caterpillars don’t sting. A grown-up identifies it first and supervises; handle as little as possible, never while it is molting. The house rules say what little hands can hold and what is look-only.
We did a butterfly kit. How is this different?
Learn to make habitat for wild monarchs, without ordering caterpillars. You plant the native milkweed, and the guide shows you what to do from egg to butterfly.
Does it cover my part of town?
The Austin-area edition: Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell counties. Clay or rock, the guide matches the milkweed to your ground.
Get your Austin yard ready for monarchs and learn what to watch for.
Instant download · Full refund within 30 days, for any reason
Built from published sources (public agencies, universities and monarch research groups), listed in the notes. Not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them. The source list