Enjoy an up-close-and-personal visit with monarch butterflies in various stages of their life cycle, and find out how you can help safeguard these creatures.

Horticulturist and owner of Natureworks Garden Center, Nancy DuBrule-Clemente, brings her captivating, hands-on presentation, “Raising Monarch Butterflies,” to the Pardee-Morris House. Admission is free, donations welcomed. 

Only 2 out of every 100 monarch eggs survive in the wild to become a butterfly. The odds for the survival are not in their favor, but if DuBrule-Clemente has her way they will survive and thrive. Her presentation includes an introduction and demonstrates how to hunt for the eggs, bring them inside, raise them and release them. 

The presentation will also include information on what to plant to keep monarchs and other important pollinators happy and healthy, including milkweed, butterfly weed, and lots of nectar flowers. 

“The Connecticut shoreline is a prime migration corridor for the monarchs,” DuBrule-Clemente said, “And everyone who lives in that area should put out the welcome mat with lots and lots of nectar flowers for September and October when they are migrating.”

Nancy DuBrule-Clemente is the owner of Natureworks Horticultural Services, an organic garden center, landscape design, consultation, installation and maintenance service in Northford, Connecticut. One of the main goals at Natureworks is to educate the community about gardening for the wildlife with which we share our properties. DuBrule-Clemente graduated from the Ratcliffe Hicks School of the University of Connecticut with a degree in floriculture. She is the author of “Succession of Bloom in the Perennial Garden” and coauthor (with Marny Smith) of “A Country Garden for your Backyard.” She is a former board member and past president of the Northeast Organic Farming Association Connecticut Chapter and is a current board member of the Connecticut Nurserymen’s Foundation.