Milkweed for Butterfly Gardens Video

There are a lot of milkweeds native to North America but only a few that are commercially available are suitable for small butterfly gardens. This video covers two that may be the best choices for the vast majority of gardeners.

This is a little different than my other videos, but it is along the same lines. Hope you find it useful!

Anthony

Nice info, thank you. Didn't know about the varied types of milkweed and where it does best.

Always good to know plants and the good they do.

I have a variety of Milkweeds on my place, 7 at last count.
I have some Tall Green Milkweed seed I am stratifying right now hopefully for planting this summer.


Tall Green Milkweed.




Lots of different kinds means all types of habitat is covered.

Sharon - Thank you!

Dirty D - tall green is an awesome milkweed. It is rare in KY but has been recorded in a few counties around me.

Years ago, I brought some pods in from ranch and spread some seed for the monarchs in back of property. I hoe out some plants and leave about 10 to 12 plants each year. I have them come every year and lay eggs on the milkweed and I raise a few in a butterfly cage and release them when born and ready for flight. The monarch is an interesting subject.

Snowy - those less dense patches like you are maintaining are actually preferred by the females for egg laying.

^ Yep. I see them feed on the plant leaves because of the holes they leave from feeding on them. Ii have milkweed growing along a crick at the ranch. I never try to kill it because of the monarchs. I see them often there but almost never see them in town, like I used to as a kid.

Anthony Keep preaching the good word .Another nice informative and practical t post that proves almost all of us can help improve wildlife habitat if w try .

I enjoy all your videos Anthony. Keep them coming. Like snowy I want to get around to what he is doing.

Russ

I leave several acres unmowed after April becuse those areas are thick with butterfly milkweed and swamp ot common milk weed. 3 different goldenrod varieties among other late blooming plants. I leave them for the pollinators . We get a lot of different butterfly along with monarch.

I pick and sell common and swamp milkweed every year.

Anthony another great video.
Is there a name for the swamp milkweed that I would seed other than swamp milkweed. I'm not a big plant person more my wife's thing. She said we had that swamp milkweed on our beach one summer. I'd like to plant some there if I could find seed. I tried planting common milkweed in my road ditch. Just rakes the seeds in. But I think the grounds right for it. I think what I call common milkweed is on the noxious weed list here. Or at least used to be...
Anyways if I could find seed for the swamp milkweed. I'd put that on my beach.

Mac

Thanks for all the kind words everyone!

Macthediver - Swamp milkweed is also called rose milkweed, but if you check the scientific name on the packet it will be Asclepias incarnata. If it is not that scientific name it isn't what is known in most places as swamp milkweed. Common names are terrible when it comes to plants since they are very interchangable. It can get very confusing at times. That is why I always include the scientific names in the videos cause they are for that plant and that plant only.

Prairie Moon nursery in MN has swamp milkweed seed and it is from your general area so it should do well. They are a good place to get seed from and have a great website.

I had the first Asclepias tuberosa, commonly known as butterfly weed, or butterfly milkweed, show up on my farm today. We've lived here since 2012 and the closest butterfly weeds I've seen are a little over a mile from here. I think it's one of the prettiest native plants. There's a single specimen in my hay field, viewable from the throne in my bathroom.





I'm going to dig it up and move it before I bale hay again.

Keith

I dug some out of the road ditch last year, three of them grew back and bloomed this year

KeithC - try not to disturb the roots too much when you dig it up - milkweeds in general do not transplant well. They don't do well with root disturbance, there are exceptions to this, but butterfly weed is not one of them.

For those that want butterfly weed I would recommend getting seed from local plants and growing them out and planting them where you want them. Easy to grow from seed and does well in a pot. Just don't disturb the roots much when planting it out.