Milkweeds - Asclepias for All Gardens and Gardeners

Whether you call them Asclepias or Milkweeds, this family has everything from tall weeds that grow in drainage ditches to garden quality plants.

Some of them are shrubs, some grow in wet soil, and others thrive in dry scrub. They grow in South Africa and there is at least one milkweed in every state of the U.S.

Their flowers vary but all have seedpods filled with a fluffy, silky substance that carries the seeds on the air.

Asclepias flowers attract several types of butterflies and their leaves provide food for Monarch butterfly caterpillars.
There are three potential problems with growing Asclepias: The milky sap can cause a rash on sensitive skin, they attract aphids and cows can become sick if they eat it.

Many Asclepias are native to Oklahoma but you can also grow other varieties with special care.

The USDA Plants Database lists them at http://plants.usda.gov/. If you have a milkweed to identify, go to http://shrvl.com/n751D to see 226 photos and drawings of Asclepias varieties.

Choose one of these garden-worthy Asclepias species for your garden.

Butterfly weed, or Butterfly flower, Silkweed, Silky Swallowort, Indian Posey, Orange Root or Virginia Silkweed, (Asclepias tuberosa) likes dry soil. Grows up to 3-feet tall with red, orange and yellow flowers. They are native to most of the U.S.

Asclepias tuberosa is the milkweed most commonly sold by nurseries. It does not spread wildly but still has all the benefits of attracting butterflies.

In “Oklahoma Gardener’s Guide” Steve Dobbs wrote about Asclepias tuberosa, saying that you can’t beat its resilience for growing in poor, dry spots. Gay Butterflies Mix is a combination of orange-red, pink and yellow flowers.

Oklahoma native Antelope-horn milkweed is also called Spider milkweed, Antelope horns, Green-flowered milkweed, and Spider antelope-horns. Asclepias asperula or Asclepias viridis has a round ball shaped cluster of flowers.

Bloodflower – also called Indian Root and Swallow-wort (Asclepias curassavica) is perennial in South America and is grown as an annual here. It typically has red or orange-red flowers; the variety Silky Gold has yellow flowers and grows to 3-feet tall.

Perennial Narrowleaf milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) grows to 3-feet tall in dry soil. Pink flowers.

Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), an Oklahoma native, grows to 4-feet tall with pink flowers. One hybrid, Ice Ballet has white flowers. Likes moist soil.

Showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) has purple-pink flowers but likes well-drained soil. Plants for a Future database (www.pfaf.org) says the plant’s flowerbuds taste like peas when cooked. This one can become invasive if allowed to seed at will.

Prairie milkweed or smooth milkweed, Asclepias sullivantii, has pink-burgundy flowers on 2-foot tall stems in moist soil. This one is an Oklahoma native that is threatened because its numbers are so low. The seedpods are collected and used in dried flower arrangements.

Common milkweed, A. syriaca, is a native in more than half of the U.S. They grow to 5-feet tall with fragrant lavender flowers. Can become a weed in good soil.

Whorled milkweed (A. verticillata) has threadlike leaves and white flowers.

Dobbs recommends taking tip cuttings to root at the end of the summer. Keep the plants going indoors over the winter and plant them next spring.

Deadheading can prolong the flowering season. Remove flowers as they fade so the plant will continue to produce more buds.

Gardeners often allow a few seed pods to form. In the spring put the floss and seeds outside. The birds will use the floss for their nests and the seeds will sprout to make plants.

Useful resources for native plants can be found at http://www.missouriplants.com/, http://www.kswildflower.org/, and Oklahoma Native Plant Society at www.usao.edu/~onps/.

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillars, Good Reason to Preserve Plant Species, Move Herbs Indoors

The Monarch Butterflies are still very busy making babies on the Asclepias. Sadly, the large caterpillar on the patch of Asclepias in the front was destroyed by spiders feeding themselves dinner. Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas has an online resource for all things Monarch.
These are in a backyard planting. In the top photo, there are two sizes of caterpillar and lots of yellow aphids on the top of the photo. Aphids and Asclepias go together but you can't spray the aphids without harming the tiny Monarch eggs and hatchings.
The bottom photo is another fairly large caterpillar. We have yet to find a chrysalis so we don't know if all the caterpillars are being eaten by birds and spiders or if they are just more shy than the Fritillary Butterflies who have their chrysalis on everything from the brick walls of the house to the lightening rod ground wires.

Monarch caterpillars eat only the leaves of plants that are members of the Milkweed plant family. Since Asclepias is native to the coastal regions, we have to plant it here. Once you have a successful planting, it will seed itself and you will see migrating Monarchs in your garden.

CBS News Online reported that 70 % of plant genes are shared by human genes and that 60-percent of the medicines used by cancer patients are from plant, soil and bacteria sources. More useful medicines come from plants than from chemical sources.

It is time to bring in herbs for the winter windowsills. Organic Gardening online provided tips: Dig up the herb, plant it in clean soil and leave it outside, under a tree for a week. The plant has to get used to the lower light conditions that will prevail in your home even in a sunny spot. Go to their link to read which herbs work best for the move indoors.

Today in the Garden

The Mystery Plant now spans over 4-feet across with each branch topped with one of these crowns. Photos of the plant have been emailed to a few plantsmen and experts who have said it is some kind of primrose. One said to dig it out and another said to wait until it blooms. We're waiting.

The strawberry bed is a small raised bed topped with straw. A drip irrigation system is built into the soil and connects to the hose from the edge of the bed.

The baby's breath came up from seed planted last year. The lavender flower is a native that was planted a year or two ago. Now it's almost 3-feet tall and covered with flowers loved by bees, butterflies and their relatives. That corner of the flower bed is always busy. While I was focusing the camera and macro lens, I was being buzzed the entire time.

Only one kind of tomatoes is being attacked by slugs so pans of beer were put into place after watering this morning. The greens are also being nibbled on but they can still be harvested.

Bunnies or someone else snacked on the lavender to the point that they became 2-inch stubs. Being topped with strawberry baskets for a few days gave the plants a chance to fill out again.

I planted 20 or so Asclepias tuberose (milkweed) seedlings in several spots around the beds in the hope that next year they will bring migrating Monarch butterflies to our yard.

Happy gardening is easier now that plants are taking hold and flowers are blooming.