The Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum was the first museum in Milwaukee County to install a Butterfly Garden.  This beautiful garden is a unique addition to the existing exquisite Italian Renaissance Gardens at the Villa. The Butterfly Garden is a vital way station for migrating monarch butterflies, providing necessary milkweed and other food for this majestic native species. It's not just monarchs that benefit from the Butterfly Garden. The native plants in our Butterfly Garden also provide food and homes to many native pollinators. 

 

These pollinators are key to our own human existence because they pollinate the food and plants we depend upon in Wisconsin.  It is up to us to protect our pollinators and restore the beautiful and basic flowers and plants that our pollinators must have to survive. The Villa Terrace's Butterfly Garden is free from insecticides, herbicides and fertilizers as these pose a risk to pollinators. We encourage you to garden organically to help our native species.

 

The Villa Terrace is committed to showing the public how easy, fun and rewarding it is to invite butterflies, native bees and other pollinators into our gardens. Every year, the Friends of Villa Terrace host events and workshops related to the Butterfly Garden including our annual Monarch Celebration in September where we tag and release several monarch butterflies. Don't miss it!

 

More About Native Plants and Pollinators

Milkweed is key to monarch and pollinator survival.  Did you know that the native American ladybug is in crisis?  This iconic pollinator lays its eggs on milkweed. Did you know that milkweed is actually an herb and native wildflower? Unfortunately, European settlers misnamed this beneficial plant as a weed, leading to its removal from land and gardens. When you plant native milkweed you help Wisconsin's ecosystem. 

 

The US Fish and Wildlife Service is asking Americans to plant milkweed and native nectar wildflowers.  Visit their website: https://www.fws.gov/ and search “Save the Monarch Butterfly” to learn more on what the US Government is doing to help save the Monarch.

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