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The Monarch Wishing Tree

Supporting Western Monarch Butterfly Conservation





Wishing Tree Blog

Western Monarch butterflies are in peril. Western Monarch populations have dropped 97 percent below their historic average between the 1980’s and the mid 2010’s. In July of 2022 the butterfly was declared an Endangered Species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).



Wishing Tree Blog


Gardeners play an important role in their possible recovery.

Building on other efforts, including a Free Milkweed Exchange, in the spring of 2022 Roger’s Gardens launched a Monarch Wishing Tree to both further highlight the role that gardeners play in this iconic butterfly’s recovery and to raise needed funds for additional research and conservation.

The Wishing Tree was located in the middle of the garden center and seen by tens of thousands of shoppers and visitors. Requesting a $5 donation, small wooden life-size Monarch butterflies were added to the tree. Each orange butterfly included a handwritten “wish” and was added to the others on the tree, creating quite a show.

Wishing Tree Blog
Early in the campaign. Getting lots of attention.


Wishing Tree Blog
The monarchs and the donations are coming in.
Thousands of visitors are learning about
Monarch conservation and how they can help.

The Wishing tree, now filled with over a thousand Monarchs and Monarch wishes continues and, like Monarchs returning to their overwintering trees, will be on display throughout the winter.

Informational signage and literature are all a part of the display and informs visitors of the monarch’s life cycle, its relationship with locally native species of milkweed, and what gardeners can do to assist in their recovery.



Thank you to all of our guests and visitors who hung a butterfly and made a donation. Over $6,000 was raised in 2022 and donated to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a leading science-based organization engaged in Monarch conservation and conducting original research to guide those conservation efforts.

Wishing Tree Blog
Lots of good wishes for the Monarchs.



  Monarch Wishing Tree  



Wishing Tree Blog






Wishing Tree Blog
 
Western Monarch butterflies are in peril. Western Monarch populations have dropped 97 percent below their historic average between the 1980’s and the mid 2010’s. In July of 2022 the butterfly was declared an Endangered Species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).


Wishing Tree Blog
Early in the campaign. Getting lots of attention.


Gardeners play an important role in their possible recovery.

Building on other efforts, including a Free Milkweed Exchange, in the spring of 2022 Roger’s Gardens launched a Monarch Wishing Tree to both further highlight the role that gardeners play in this iconic butterfly’s recovery and to raise needed funds for additional research and conservation.

The Wishing Tree was located in the middle of the garden center and seen by tens of thousands of shoppers and visitors. Requesting a $5 donation, small wooden life-size Monarch butterflies were added to the tree. Each orange butterfly included a handwritten “wish” and was added to the others on the tree, creating quite a show.


Wishing Tree Blog
The monarchs and the donations are coming in. Thousands of visitors are learning about Monarch conservation and how they can help.


The Wishing tree, now filled with over a thousand Monarchs and Monarch wishes continues and, like Monarchs returning to their overwintering trees, will be on display throughout the winter.

Informational signage and literature are all a part of the display and informs visitors of the monarch’s life cycle, its relationship with locally native species of milkweed, and what gardeners can do to assist in their recovery.




Ino Schaller
Lots of good wishes for the Monarchs.

Thank you to all of our guests and visitors who hung a butterfly and made a donation. Over $6,000 was raised in 2022 and donated to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a leading science-based organization engaged in Monarch conservation and conducting original research to guide those conservation efforts.


  Monarch Wishing Tree  

Thank You
Over $6,000 Raised in 2023 to Support The Xerces Society, Whose Work Includes Western Monarch Conservation