Alsip Home & Nursery Hosts Pollinator Palooza, Releasing 100 Butterflies

FRANKFORT, IL — Celebrate all things pollinators at Alsip Home & Nursery's free Pollinator Palooza on July 13 at both nursery locations, in Frankfort and in St. John, Indiana.

The nursery said each store plans to release 100 monarch butterflies at noon, reared on-site from caterpillars nurtured with care by the Alsip team.

Leading up to the release, visitors will have a chance to participate in a scavenger hunt. A storewide experience for families to learn and check off their “Pollinator Passport” where in which the first 50 families to complete will receive a "Butterfly Boarding Pass” granting the opportunity to help the Monarchs take flight, according to a release.

Months before the event, the nursery cultivates monarch-friendly milkweed, grown locally at Alsip’s Kingsbury Acres growing facility, the business said. Monarch caterpillars feed exclusively on milkweed, and while they can utilize many species, they show a particular preference for Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata). This, along with Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa), supports monarchs through all five larval instar stages before forming a chrysalis and completing their metamorphosis.

To complement the butterfly release, Alsip Home & Nursery is also featuring a diverse lineup of native perennials for building your own pollinator-friendly garden, according to a release.

“Native plants are essential for pollinators,” the Alsip Green Team said. “They’ve evolved to support the butterflies, bees, and birds that our gardens—and our food systems—depend on.”

The Pollinator Palooza will begin at 9 a.m. on July 13, with the opening of the butterfly house. The pollinator scavenger hunt kicks off at 11 a.m., followed by the monarch butterfly release at noon and a gardening talk at 1 p.m.