Whether you’re a pollinator pro or planting your first butterfly garden, Pollinator Palooza is a can’t-miss event full of inspiration, education, and natural wonder.
Pollinator Palooza Schedule of Events:
🦋 9:00 AM - Butterfly House – Viewing
Get and up close look at these beautiful pollinators!
🕚 10:00 AM –Kids Moss Art Workshop | $12 - Register Here
Create a unique piece of living art using colored moss! Choose one of our provided templates or freestyle your own design on an 8x6 wooden frame.
🕚 11:00 AM – Scavenger Hunt for Groups and Families | No Registration Required
Leading up to the release, visitors can participate in our scavenger hunt for a chance to release a Monarch! Buzz around Alsip checking off your “Pollinator Passport” where in which the first 50 groups to complete will receive a “Butterfly Boarding Pass” granting the opportunity to help the Monarchs take flight!
🦋 12:00 PM – Monarch Butterfly Release
Each store plans to release 100 monarch butterflies at 12:00 PM, reared onsite from caterpillars nurtured with care by the Alsip team.
🌼 1:00 PM – Pollinator Gardening Talk by Our Experts
Find out the best plants to use in the landscape for creating a pollinator paradise.
Additional Information:
A Monarch Butterfly Release and Family-Friendly Celebration of Native Plants and Pollinator Gardens
Frankfort, IL & St. John, IN — Alsip Home & Nursery is thrilled to invite the community to Pollinator Palooza, a celebration of all things pollinators, happening Sunday, July 13th at both retail locations in Frankfort, IL and St. John, IN. The star attraction?
Leading up to the release, visitors will have a chance to view our butterfly house at each location—an experience where families can see these beautiful pollinators up close before they take flight into the wild.
The magic begins weeks before the event with the cultivation of monarch-friendly milkweed, grown locally at Alsip’s Kingsbury Acres growing facility. 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 W**d (Asclepias tuberosa), supports monarchs through all five larval instar stages before forming a chrysalis and completing their metamorphosis.
Milkweed isn’t just vital to monarchs—it’s a powerhouse for local ecosystems. Swamp milkweed thrives in moist soils and attracts a wide range of beneficial insects with its fragrant pink blooms, while butterfly W**d offers fiery orange flowers and drought tolerance.
To complement the butterfly release, Alsip Home & Nursery is also featuring a diverse lineup of native perennials perfect for building your own pollinator-friendly garden.
“Native plants are essential for pollinators,” says the Alsip Green Team. “They’ve evolved to support the butterflies, bees, and birds that our gardens—and our food systems—depend on.”
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