
-photo courtesy of Narendra Verma
NASHVILLE- In conjunction with National Pollinator Week, the Tennessee Department of Transportation has resumed online ordering for milkweed seeds through Project Milkweed.
Last year, this project distributed 779,601 seed packets. Plant species and seed material quantities are being offered like last year and packets are free to Tennessee residents. Orders will be filled while supplies last and can be placed at www.tnpollinators.org/milkweed.
In 2023, 130,903 individual orders for milkweed seed were fulfilled. Did your seeds germinate? Are you seeing blooms yet? TDOT encourages the public to share pictures from their garden using the searchable hashtag #TDOTProjectMilkweed.
Their Pollinator Habitat Program was created in 2017 in response to declining populations of pollinator species due to habitat loss, pests and pathogens, and exposure to pesticides. The program includes a multi-agency working group and partnership with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, and the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency.
Project Milkweed is just one of the program’s initiatives. It benefits a variety of pollinators, but most notably the monarch butterfly, which exclusively uses milkweed as a host plant for laying eggs and hatching its caterpillars.