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● BUTTERFLY REFUGE
Hatch & Release
kathleen palmer’s Bernardsville
garden is filled with azaleas, tiger lilies,
hydrangeas, black-eyed Susans and
Japanese red maples. But it is the common milkweed that attracts Palmer’s
favorite guests, the monarch butterflies
that visit every year.
Palmer’s well-kept jungle serves as
a summertime refuge for the winged
insects on their northern migration.
Since 2006, the garden has been a registered waystation with Monarch Watch,
an organization dedicated to assuring a
future for monarchs in the face of habitat loss. (Other New Jersey waystations
include Duke Farms in Hillsborough.)
“I want to bring awareness about the
plight of the monarchs and all pollinators,” says Palmer, 74.
Palmer didn’t plant the milkweed
that monarchs crave; it just sprang
up. She considers it nature’s way of
telling her to continue her childhood
endeavor of raising butterflies. “I never
know when the first one will come,”
says Palmer. “For me, it’s a very exciting
time to see one or find an egg.”
The mother monarchs arrive in
Palmer’s garden and lay their micro-
scopic, white eggs on the underside of
the milkweed leaves. Palmer moves the
eggs indoors and nurtures them with
milkweed and nectar from plants through
their metamorphosis
from caterpillar to
chrysalis (when they
develop wings) to
adult butterfly. The
process runs from
late spring to early
autumn, when Palmer
releases the adults
back into the wild.
In addition to
habitat loss, mon-
archs are threat-
ened by natural
predators, including
ladybugs, milkweed
beetles and grass-
hoppers, all of which
enjoy eating monarch eggs. Praying
mantises, though beneficial in keep-
ing mosquitoes away from Palmer’s
garden, also feast on monarch eggs, as
well as caterpillars and adult butterfly
bodies. (Oddly, they have a distaste for
butterfly wings.)
Palmer keeps detailed records of
the monarchs in her care, including
their sex, which she determines based
on a pattern on their wings. Before
release, she carefully tags the insects
for future tracking. In 2017, Palmer
raised, tagged and released 195 butterflies. Her helpers include her husband,
freeholder and former Bernardsville
mayor Peter Palmer.
Butterflies are not Palmer’s sole inter-
est. She owns the nearby Studio 7 Fine
Art Gallery, where
she displays paint-
ings, art glass, bronze
and jewelry from
dozens of artists,
mostly from New Jer-
sey. She also donates
to the Raptor Trust
in Millington and
helps build butterfly
gardens for other
Jersey residents and
organizations.
There’s no telling
how many butterflies
each garden will
attract.
“You never know
how many you’ll get,” she explains.
“This is all about preserving our world,
our environment, for generations to
come.”
—Dominique McIndoe
Peter and Kathleen Palmer admire a monarch
butterfly in their garden in Bernardsville.
gardenvarıety
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