The new year has begun very cold. Freezing temperatures have reached down to about twenty miles above our location on several nights and the immediate forecast is basically for more of the same although we are yet not expecting a freeze here for the immediate future at least. Usually, the freeze doesn't kill the plants totally here when it occurs because the ground doesn't freeze deeply enough to kill the root system, but it does nevertheless kill many plants, especially annuals, and those that are damaged need time to recover.
Milkweed is in the latter group.
This creates a zone of transitional plant life. Below us, further south, it is more tropical, above us, more temperate. As you may imagine, this also effects the butterflies we see. There are tropical species south of us that rarely come up the state this far and more temperate species that do not make it this far south. Then, there are also exceptions.