Asclepias tuberosa
Butterfly Milkweed
This cultivar is the milkweed plant that I remember growing along farmers fences, when I was growing up in rural Illinois. I would break open the mature pods to "free the fairies" that were locked inside, and my dad would always find a pod with a cocoon in it to bring home for my sisters and I to watch over. 
This is the nursery of several butterflies including the Monarch. They can take a couple of years to get going but they are quite beautiful and beneficial. They require one season of winter cold to bloom, and will take a few years to get up to full bloom potential.
They have deep taproots so are difficult to transplant but grow well from seeding. Because of the long taproot they can also be hard to get rid of. Up to 36" tall, tolerates poor soil and heat, all parts are very toxic in the raw, but this plant has long been used medicinally concocted or in poultice form. [Named for Asclepius, the god of healing.]
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Just want to say....
...because I don't comment on Plantidote every day, I love your pictures and look forward to seeing them!
Thank you :-)
I have learned so much myself, with twig and jerz to guide me over the mystery spots. Looking forward to this year a lot, got a new camera for xmas.
Pollinators!
I've always loved milkweed. Just like you, I grew up in the midwest, and I loved to open the pods and throw the seeds into the air.
I wonder if I could get some going in the back yard.... If they attracted butterflies, that would be great. Apparently milkweed grows in Maine!
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Mahatma Gandhi
Milkweed
yes for maine, to zone 3.
I just think the milkweeds are so amazing, and so beneficial that everyone should order seed, or gather up some pods, and just spread that in open fields and alongside roads wherever. Oh, yeah that's not an original idea is it. Kathy Milkweedseed. It just doesn't have that nice ring to it that the apple guy had, does it? Of course, with permanent disemployment comes new opportunities.
Always one idea behind... well, everyone. (tm) :-/
Did you know
there are 108 species of milkweed in North America? I don't know if they all attract butterflies. 3 most common types available as plants in nurseries are swamp milkweed (a. incarnata) butterfly (a. tuberosa) and blood(a currasciva)
I am cold stratifying some seeds now (of the swamp milkweed). I hope I actually get some new plants, unfortunately I have a brown thumb when starting plants from seed. :-(
I've got cold...
... maybe I can stratify!
Er, what's cold stratification!
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Mahatma Gandhi
Wow, I thought these were cymbidium orchids at first,
they're great!!
We had milkweeds growing up in Michigan, but I don't remember them looking like this. The garden book says they'll grow here -- happy happy!! Thanks, kath -- I lovelovelove new plants!
"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." -- Albert Einstein
Cold stratification
If the instructions for germination say cold stratification, it just means the seeds need a period of cold weather before they will germinate. You could just throw the seeds on the ground in the fall, but milkweed shows up very late in the garden, and if you're like me, you'll weed it out by accident, so I use this method: place seeds in seed starter mix, add some water, put in refrigerator. Wait 4-6 weeks. Put mix in pots on a seed starter mat (glorified heating pad) and wait.
Maybe its a combination of
Maybe its a combination of impatience and rank amateurism, but I can't get seeds to harden off at all, everything just dies. Lambert's post whenever about winter seeding in milk jugs has been the only way I've gotten good seed results.
Aren't we due pics of L's garden projects here pretty soon?