Have you been missing the monarchs? With populations declining by more than 80 per cent over the past two decades, there are fewer and fewer of these butterflies.

“Monarch butterflies had a good winter, but they remain perilously close to extinction,” said Jode Roberts, manager of the David Suzuki Foundation’s Got Milkweed campaign and Toronto-based Homegrown National Park Project. “Planting milkweed and other pollinator-friendly plants in our gardens, schoolyards and parks is the best way citizens across the country can help bring them back.”

The David Suzuki Foundation is urging you to plant milkweed this spring with its third annual #gotmilkweed campaign, in support of dwindling migratory monarch butterfly populations.

“Milkweed is the only plant that monarch butterflies lay their eggs on and is the primary source of food for monarch caterpillars,” said Roberts. “Scientists have identified milkweed planting as the most important action people can take to help support threatened monarch populations.”

The online #gotmilkweed campaign offers three types of milkweed plants native to eastern Canada that can be purchased individually or as kits. For the first time, the sale also includes milkweed seed packets that will be mailed in early May. Get your kit here. Happy planting!