Where to find milkweed

Flowers: pale pink or violet, arranged in almost spherical umbels. Fruits: large spindle-shaped fruit, bumpy, rough and downy. Habitat: poor, dry soil, disturbed, sunny sites. Butterfly milkweed Asclepias tuberosa. Flowers: bright orange-yellow, arranged in umbels. Leaves: alternate on the stem not opposite each other , lance-shaped, 5 to 10 cm long, smooth on top and downy beneath. Habitat: limestone soils, open, rocky, dry sites. Does not tolerate shade. Unique feature: no milky sap.

Distribution: Ontario, Quebec. Whorled milkweed Asclepias verticillata. Flowers: white corona and greenish corolla. Leaves: elongated and narrow, almost threadlike, 5 to 10 cm long. Arranged in groups of 2 to 4, opposite each other on the stem. Fruits: elongated and lance-shaped, 7 to 10 cm long, glabrous or pubescent hairy.

We are ready to start our butterfly garden next spring, we have some local variety seeds collected and ready for stratification when the time comes this winter. We live in southern Illinois, in zone 6a. We would like to get a jump-start on the season by starting some tropical milkweed indoors to put outdoors this spring in pots.

We grow other tropical plants indoors, so have space and lighting already available. How fast does it grow? Should we plant seed now, or wait until later? A friend has some A. Could we take some stem cuttings to grow indoors over the winter for another head-start, or would that even work? Thanks for the great site! Hi Arthur, you start tropical milkweed in fall, winter, or spring. I usually take tropical milkweed cuttings in late winter. You could start seeds months before planting.

You can take tuberosa cuttings to start more plants too. Growing Milkweed from Cuttings. Thanks Tony. I guess my main question was whether or not stem cuttings taken this late in the season would still root. Starting Milkweed Cuttings in 2-liter Soda Bottles. Thank you for all the work you put into your site and raising Monarchs with such a high survival rate to time of release.

Many very helpful hints! A couple things seemed unclear — mostly they are geographic things, but since this is pretty crucial to the Monarchs, you may want to consider editing them: Asclepias tuberosa is not native to California, or several other states mentioned. So planting Mexican and eastern varieties of milkweed is not recommended on the west coast, and vice versa.

You do recommend doing research before planting non natives. However, on your website this recommendation gets pretty lost, and you show almost exclusively non native, tropical species being cultivated and used for raising your Eastern Monarchs.

While raising non-native milkweed species wherever you are located has only been associated with Monarch population declines and not yet proven as another cause, why risk it when there is increasing evidence that it may be detrimental? We have historically tended to cause ecological disasters by introducing non native species, however well-intentioned.

Hi Katherine, than you for your comments. First off, A. Please check USDA website for native listing info. I hope you are having a fantastic butterfly season! Our gated community in Virginia just east of the Piedmont. It is over acres, 18 home golf course, over homes, several ponds with swampy areas, two creeks and woods bordering the entire community. Are there perennial species that would do well in these various areas without becoming overrunning pests?

Hi, swamp milkweed prefers moist soil and is a popular host plant and nectar flower for monarchs. Many other butterflies and pollinators use it as a nectar source too. Swamp Milkweed Info. I am having a strange issue where the Monarch caterpillars go into premature cocooning stage, they attach themselves upside down but nothing else. They just die stranded upside down. This has happened 3 times so far.

This is my 1st year of having a Monarch milkweed garden with plenty of caterpillars but have not seen any get to the chrysalis state, help! Hi Greg, it sounds like you might have an issue with tachinid flies. They lay eggs inside the caterpillar and the larvae eat the monarch from the inside out. Often, this causes the monarch caterpillars to pupate prematurely.

Here is more info:. I live near Houston Texas and wonder which ones would be the best to try to grow in my area and do well in containers…. Hey Shirley. I live in Houston too. It was devastating to watch. Thank you for your website and all the great information about Monarchs, milkweed varieties, etc.

Keep up the outstanding work! I have a long history with Monarch butterflies about 40 years. When I was about 10 years old, I noticed a large group of plants out in the pasture across the road the cows would not eat. I went to investigate. After discovering striped caterpillars on these tall weeds Asclepias fascicularis -narrowleaf milkweed I took some home, put the caterpillars and some milkweed cuttings in some pickle jars and later when they came out of their chrysalis, discovered they were Monarchs.

We already had large quantities of Monarch butterflies around our ranch house most of the summer. In college, I helped my girlfriend now my wife of 30 years with a butterfly lesson for her elementary school class. About 10 years later, with three young children in tow, my wife and I went driving through the countryside near Fresno, CA to look for milkweed and caterpillars.

We wanted to share our past experiences with our children. We found some milkweed plants and better yet, some caterpillars! We shared the caterpillar raising experience with our three kids and their elementary school classes. From about to I noticed the milkweed population drop dramatically. Roadside mowing contributed to this decline. Another factor is development of land where milkweed plants grow. The only milkweeds I could find were in non-cultivated fields in town and grazing land out in the countryside.

Year after year we would drive through the countryside searching the milkweed for caterpillars but found none. This was very discouraging. Three years ago my family moved to Colorado Springs, CO. I looked online to see if Monarchs come through our area.

I would still like to plant milkweed, as I believe I saw a Monarch here last summer. Swallowtail butterflies are fairly common. What varieties of milkweed would grow best here in Colorado Springs? We have sandy soil here on the east side of town. Also, do you have information about how far into eastern Colorado from the main migratory route the Monarchs travel?

I would also welcome comments from other folks who call eastern Colorado home. I seriously would drive 3 hours to the Kansas border to find milkweed with caterpillars and bring some back to Colorado Springs.

Hi Mark, Thank you for sharing your monarch story…I look forward to hearing how the next chapter unfolds. Until monarchs are monitored with digital tags, much of the monarch data depends on accurate sightings, which often times are not reliable. My best advice would be to start growing milkweed. Grow Milkweed in Containers. Great, informative, post — thank you.

We recently moved to coastal southeastern N. Anyone out there have experience growing milkweeds under these conditions? Would love any pointers you can share. Asclepias incarnata. There are many variables that affect how a particular milkweed will grow in your garden so experimentation is key to success.

Good luck with your new garden! I checked very carefully for predators before placing the milkweed in their cage. I spritzed them daily with water, I cleaned their frass each day. I am so heartbroken. Is this the time where I need to euthanize?

I think my mistake is that I brought in five cats from my garden when all the others hatched from eggs in my Kritter Keeper set up. Do you think that was the main cause? I live in South Florida. It does sound like it could be a virus.

However, is there a possibility that the milkweed was treated with pesticides? This is often the issue when they all die at the same time. When I needed extra milkweed they ate so much! Perhaps the plants were treated. Thank you for the information. Hi Danielle, this issue has been reported by many over the past few years. This issue is more common when purchasing from big box stores that purchase plants from a grower.

If a nursery grows their own stock, they can tell you for sure whether it was treated or not. Well this is a huge lesson for me. I will just wait until my own supply from my own pesticide free milkweed is bulked up enough to provide for cats. A tough lesson to learn, but I will never buy from someone unless they grow it themselves and can guarantee.

Is my best bet to throw away what I bought or is there some way to cleanse it of the suspected pesticides? Hi Danielle, growing your own supply is definitely the best route to go, even if you have to wait a little bit. Hope this helps:. Milkweed Stores Online.

I just tossed them in the garbage. Thank you SO much for the information. The milkweed that I keep in my garden is pesticide free, it came from a butterfly-loving garden center. Time to start over! Hi Kim, seeds usually work well if you soak them for 24 hours before planting. A heated seed mat also speeds up germination. The showy milkweed grows in the irrigation run off ditch that runs in front of my house. When he brought it in to show me I was pretty sure I knew what it was, but I looked it up to be sure.

After reading that the Monarch caterpillar does better if its raised than it does in the wild. We put him in a insect container, I read a lot, then made sure I replaced the leaves. After about a month I noticed he had hooked himself to the lid, then went into the cocoon and it was so exciting when I found him out of the cocoon.

I shared this experience with my grandkids. We learned by trial to keep him inside until his wings dried and how to figure out the sex. We enjoyed this so much we kept looking for more, but never found any. I would really love to learn what else I can plant to not only attract the Monarchs but to be able to sustain them too.

I live outside Rexburg Idaho I belive in zone 5a. Any tips and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Can you buy eggs or caterpillars anywhere? Two varieties of milkweed that attract a lot of monarch activity are swamp milkweed asclepias incarnata and tropical milkweed asclepias curassavica because they are used as both host plants for caterpillars and a nectar source for butterflies.

The tropical would be an annual in your region so you would have to purchase yearly or overwinter plants indoors. You may be able to find some locally, but you would need to talk to someone in your region to find that info. Butterfly Plants. I live in Fairfax Va. Hi Pat, all of the listings on this page have both native and perennial regions listed so you would have to look over the info and decide what will work best for your situation. Native swamp milkweed and non-native tropical are both popular host plants with long bloom periods.

Both are pretty easy to grow too…. I have 4 chrysalises in my cage and hubby found 1 on the outside of his greenhouse today, 4 caterpillars in the cage and a couple of eggs and caterpillars around the garden. Hopefully off to a long season…. Just started getting into this Butterfly deal. Im looking for a low growing variety that wont heavily compete with my foods. California Native Milkweed. Please take tropical milkweed Asclepias curassavica off your list of plants to help Monarchs!

This plant should not be sold in the USA. Instead of helping the population of Monarchs, it harms them greatly all through the Southern states by keeping them breading all fall and winter until they die of starvation because we have a hard freeze and the flowers butterflies fee on and the milkweed the caterpillars eat die off finally — as it should have back in October if it was an indigenous plant.

This disrupts their natural pattern of going to Mexico to winter. It also makes them more prone to the virus eo, which I have seen so much of this year. People need to stop spreading fear and start getting educated. Is Tropical milkweed killing monarch butterflies?

I agree with Shawn. Tony, you are making money as your disclaimer tab admits by making referrals on two blind assumptions. First, when you blithely say growers of non-natives can take certain precautions like cutting back tropical milkweed in the fall you are assuming that NO seeds have or will escape into the wild to start or expand non-native colonization. Second, putting all your eggs into the teensy little basket of KNOWN controls for KNOWN problems, you are assuming that we already know everything there is to know about how non-natives will behave when they escape your backyard.

Read up on the noxious weeds in your state. For each example, ask yourself if you had been the one who was going to lose control so that it became introduced, would you still do that if you knew at the time all the damage it would later cause?

Good words. If discretion is the better part of valor, caution is the better part of wisdom. FIRST… do no harm. Hi Tony, I found some Purple Milkweed and thought you might like to share with your followers. I already got mine yesterday and is going to be winter sown by tomorrow. Please read up and perhaps drop this plant. These issues can be avoided by cutting back plants. Tropical milkweed is a favorite host and nectar plant for monarch butterflies and deserves serious consideration when choosing butterfly garden plants.

Please read the article. The solution is simple. Very excited to grow my 1st Milkweed and bring back the Monarchs to my yard and beyond. Any suggestions for 1st year showy bloomers? Hi Kelly, most milkweed takes a year before it starts blooming except for tropical milkweed.

Good luck with your garden! Swamp milkweed. Hi Tom, if you look at each milkweed listed on the page it lists native regions, along with perennial zones as guidelines for helping you choose the best plants for your region. However, you need to start seeds indoors two months before your avg last frost or buy plants locally or online.

I would like to start growing a few more milkweed plants for the monarchs, and a friend of mine has a nursery that is close to him that said that they will be growing Asclepias sullivantii prairie milkweed next year.

After a quick look at a few websites I found that prairie milkweed is threatened in quite a few states including mine. The site said that the plant is likely to become endangered in the forseeable future throughout most or all of its range. This may sound like a dumb question but are you allowed to grow threatened or endangered flowers? I also read in your description that prairie milkweed is a common milkweed imitator. My last question has to deal with a pest that all three of the websites that I visited warned about, the milkweed leaf-miner fly.

The websites said that prairie milkweed is the plant of choice for the leaf-miner fly which likes to bore holes in the leaves? Have you found this pest to be a problem on your plants? The description of the plant from the nursery sounds great, a very fragrant milkweed that is less aggressive, and only grows to roughly half the size of common milkweed.

However, I would have to believe that the nursery would leave out the part about the leaf-miner fly if it really is a problem, and the plants appearance in late summer if it really does look like it got whacked a few times with an ugly stick. I have spoke to a few people that have grown it and i think it is a later blooming milkweed than its common counterpart. Growing your own plants from seed is welcomed and encouraged!

As for nursery descriptions, I tend to believe more what I hear from other gardeners. I think this will be one of our new milkweeds trials for It blooms late but also much longer than any other species, continuing to provide nectar even for the migratory generation in August and September.

It does not desiccate late in the season as common milkweed does; if fact, mine continues to produce some new, tender growth until frost. As both nectar source and larval host, it is unrivaled.

Last year, by my estimate, of the 16 varieties of milkweed in my yard, 50 percent of all monarch eggs were laid on prairie milkweed alone.

When it is in bloom, nectaring monarchs ignore all other sources including butterfly milkweed A. As far as appearance, it does not really resemble common milkweed all that much — it is way more attractive. The stalks and leaves always stay erect, the foliage is beautiful with a deep pink central vein, the flower heads are held erect above the leaf stalks instead of drooping beneath them. The blossoms are drop-dead blush pink, and they smell wonderful.

What else? Prairie milkweed is higher in cardiac glycosides than the common varieties, which confers more protection on monarchs both against predators and the OE parasite. It spreads, providing more monarch food each year, but is nowhere near as aggressive as common milkweed and is easy to control.

And finally, prairie milkweed really was THE dominant milkweed of our tallgrass prairies. It very likely was much more common in undisturbed native prairies than was common milkweed, a pioneer that thrives on disturbance but eventually evaporates from the climax prairie.

I could go on, but you get the picture. This is the stuff that will eventually bring back the monarchs in the Midwest. Grow it and you, too, will want to promote it. Prairie Moon Nursery now has seed. Hi Jim, I like your prairie passion! Like you, I have about 16 varieties of milkweed but ours are both native and non-native…the Minnesota monarchs use them all!

Prairie Milkweed Page. My neighbor found a milkweed near Colima Mexico that has very white umbels of flowers…that is a vine. Do you know it? I would love to discover what species of Asclepias it is. Thank you so much. Milkweed Stores. Do you know what the difference is between swamp milkweed and ice ballet?

I bought ice ballet and got confused because I had been looking for swamp milkweed, but they both have the same Latin name. I know that the flowers are a different color, I was just confused about the name. Hi Seray, they are both called Asclepias incarnata. If I had to choose one, I would go with regular swamp.

Then you can either click the links under a specific plant or go down to the store section and look for specific plants in each store to see if plants are available…Asclepias incarnata is a good garden variety where plants are often available:.

Hello Tony: I have milkweed seeds from pods given to me by a coworker. The outside green layer of pod has dried and opened to reveal beautiful jewel like seeds. What kind of soil should I plant them in? Deep, shallow? Thanks, Kathryn. Hi Paul, I added a link that has Canadian milkweed listings at the bottom of the store listings. There are actually a couple listings from Canadian vendors. Otherwise, I would try to find native nurseries and plant sales in your region.

Ropalida montana, Trona species, Chalybion benghalense. I have butterfly weed, tropical milkweed and giant. The giant is on the do not plant list for South Florida. I will try hard to contain all the seed.

I will also try to find out why it is on the list ans could it thrive in some wild areas again. The two giants are still very small but have solved the problems here. My other two varieties I constantly have a tray of plugs started. Before i found the giant I was working with friends to see who had food for the monarchs and either bringing food here or taking cats there. I saw a bunch of articles about using melon, pumpkin or cucumber for feeding. I had desperate cats in all stages and my friends were not avilable and none of the cats survived on these foods.

They did eat, but got less vital everyday. These two regions are combined since they share the same milkweed species although the need for seeds and plugs varies by ecoregion. These regions represent the main summer breeding areas for monarchs in the eastern United States. The main monarch host plant is Asclepias syriaca common milkweed. Other species used by monarchs, in order of their abundance and preference, are A.

The milkweeds used by monarchs include A. The most widespread and easiest milkweeds to grow in this region are, A. In the southern portion of the region, A. The main monarch host plants in this region are A. South and West Texas are home to numerous milkweed species but their use by monarchs is not well documented. Perhaps the easiest way to find milkweed though is to plant some in your own garden!

It is especially important to plant more milkweed now, to help bring back milkweed for monarchs. We recommend planting milkweed species native to your area whenever possible, as it is most suited to your climate and requires the least maintenance.