By Maggie Beamguard
Insider Editor
A spritely Jo An Moses takes tender steps across her gravel patio. Lined with containers boasting jovial black-eyed susans, sturdy zinnia, scarlet coneflower and spires of blue salvia, it sits along the sunny side of her house in Seven Lakes North.
The lifeblood of the garden is the milkweed with its small clusters of yellow, orange and red flowers. This is her butterfly garden, and a sanctuary for the summer generations of monarch butterflies migrating from Mexico and back again.
Colorful perennials and annuals serve as companions to the milkweed, essential to the lifecycle of monarchs as food and habitat.
During the summer and early fall, Moses inspects the milkweed daily, looking for evidence of hungry caterpillars. She collects them in a butterfly tent where she continues to feed them milkweed leaves. The milkweed has a toxin which repels predators. They gobble it up, storing away all the energy they need to pupate.
It takes no small effort to care for them. “It’s been 67 years since I’ve had a baby. I had forgotten how much feeding was involved until the monarchs started eating us out of house and home,” said Moses. “I clean the cages three to four times a day. I had forgotten how much is involved in raising anything.”
When the butterflies emerge from their green chrysalises two weeks later, spreading their striking orange and black wings, Moses celebrates like a proud parent.
After four days, when the butterflies gather enough strength from the flowers and Gatorade she brings them, she releases them. She invites friends and neighbors who she knows might need a lift to share in the ritual of sending the winged creatures on their journey.
“We bless the butterflies and thank God for them. Then we name the butterflies and release them.” She started naming the butterflies with the names of her seven grandchildren. Now she chooses names from the angels – friends, neighbors and strangers – who come to her. Today she contemplates names for the newly emerged yellow swallowtail.
She recently released butterflies at Seven Lakes Ace Hardware and Burney True Value Hardware of Seven Lakes with the permission of her friends working in the respective garden centers.
It’s a joy she experienced for the first time in her life in 2022 while participating in a butterfly release at FirstHealth Hospice House. Moses was a long-time volunteer with FirstHealth, visiting with and supporting cancer patients ever since her own cancer diagnosis and treatment in the late 1990s.
Lynda Acker, co-creator of the Healing Garden at Clara McLean House and the Hospice House gardens, placed a monarch in Moses’ hand.
It refused to leave.
“When she gave me mine, the butterfly would not leave my fingers.” Moses watched it with a sense of awe and thought, “Well God, if you are keeping this butterfly on my fingers this long, you must have something for me to do.”
When it finally departed, it lighted upon flowers next to her. Moses always appreciated butterflies but in this moment she was motivated to give nature a hand. The majestic monarchs are disappearing. Before long she found herself at Mistletoe Farms owned by Acker and her husband in search of milkweed.
Moses joined the efforts to make a way for the monarchs through the Sandhills. She and her husband, Bill, moved to Seven Lakes in 1983 from Raeford. Their yard is also a habitat for birds and their home is filled with pictures and memories.
“You see I’ve got my puzzles over there,” said Moses, gesturing across the room to a card table. “But I haven’t had time to do a puzzle lately because I’ve got the butterflies. Of course the thing about it is there are several puzzles of butterflies.”
A life that spans ten decades inevitably experiences a metamorphosis. “The older I get, the less energy I have,” reflects Moses. “So I concentrate on the butterflies right now.”
Mature monarchs live just two to five weeks during the summer months, reproducing until the fourth generation is ready to migrate south. The ones in this area will be leaving in late September or early October.
Sandhills residents have an opportunity to learn about monarchs and other pollinators at the annual Flutterby Festival presented by the Village Heritage Foundation at the Village Arboretum, 105 Rassie Wicker Drive, Pinehurst, on Sept. 27 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The ticketed event (ticketmesandhills.com) is free.
Moses recommends starting to prepare now to host next summer’s migration by sourcing sunloving milkweed and colorful perennials.
She is thrilled with her newfound hobby and hopes others will catch the bug. “At 91 years of age, it’s wonderful to have something exciting to do.”
Contact Maggie Beamguard at maggie@thepilot.com.
