Starting a milkweed garden

[Orangeaid]

Hi. I was hoping i could get some advice on starting some milkweed plants in the back yard. The question i have is would it be better to start them from seeds or dig up some wild plants roots and all and plant them that way. Thanks dave

[jen]

Hi again Dave,
I have quite a few milkweeds in my yard and garden, and I've ordered them all over the internet as plants. I tried many times (unsuccessfully) to dig up and transplant milkweeds, but the do not transfer well. I tried seeds also, both seeds I collected and purchased, and they didn't seem to sprout either. I recently found a site that sells live common milkweed plants. I don't know how to send it to you as a link. but i will give you the address. www.livemonarch.com See if they are still shipping plants for fall. Milkweed also spreads pretty rapidly, so you won't need as many plants as you think. I ordered four last spring 2005, and the patch has about 9-10 plants. Good luck with whatever is easiest for you!,
Jen

[Farfalla]

Hi Dave,
Common milkweed does look terrible when you first transplant it. And it will not be any good to Monarchs this season.. But it has been my experience that it will come back ( And then some!) the following spring.
I transplant it by planting a very deep hole and filling it with water.
Then I keep watering the plants daily.As I said they will look terrible now but you will be rewarded for your efforts next spring.
All of the Common Milkweed I have..both here at home and in our school garden waystation are from transplants. We also have gotton tropical milkweed from Live Monarch & Educational Science online.
Happy Planting

[GBMonarch]

I have transplanted milkweed sucessfully and agree that it looks sort of sad the first season but comes back the next year. The trick is to take a good amount of dirt with it and not expose the roots. Make a big enough hole and keep it watered.

As far as seeds, I've had better luck starting them indoors with starter mix and transplanting them. Though the hardiest plants have been the ones I planted last fall by just taking the seed pods from my plants and planting a bunch of seeds for the next year.

Good luck.

[Orangeaid]

Thanks for the info . It is definately going to help with the garden. Dave

[Pat]

Tropical asclepias transplant well. My dad gives me flats of them every year that he and mom grow from seeds saved from the previous year.

[John Beaulieu]

I started seeds of several milkweed species indoors under lights in early spring. I had good germination, but the milkweeds were slow growing and spindly, even though they were close to the lights which were on for at least 12 hours a day. Once they were large enough and the danger of frost was over, I started getting them used to going outside. They started off in our screen tent and eventually were planted in the garden. I also started seeds right in the ground about the same time I was conditioning the indoor starts to outdoors. The ones in the ground germinated and grew well, eventually passing the ones started earlier indoors. I don't think I would bother starting any inside again. This was for a variety of native species, I would, however, start the tropical milkweed indoors. The tropical grows better indoors than the native species and it needs that head start to make sure it flowers and produces seed pods to give seed for next year.

Everyone's conditions vary, and those are only MY results. What works best for one person, may not be the best option for others. The seeds I sowed in the ground were placed in areas of new triple-mix garden soil, with a soil-less potting mix in the imediate area of the seeds. The area was kept well watered and new seedlings were protected from the hot mid-day sun until well established. I found that the swamp milkweeds (for me) grew faster than others such as Showy, Clasping and Poke.

Most of my milkweeds are for decorative purposes in the garden, but they provide nectar and plants for egglaying. Of course leaves are lost through egg collecting! We still collect milkweed from wild patches for feeding our caterpillars. I have plans to grow more milkweed for feeding purposes and I will try the fall sowing method for this new area.

John

[ORANGEMUSTANG]

I live in southern Indiana and I am wondering where on earth do you find Milkweed just growing wild? I have never seen it, that I know of.
I bought a plant this spring off ebay (plantranch) and 2 plants a couple of week ago from Home Depo. Both are doing well with lots of new babies on them. But I would love to find some "freebies"!
Thanks, Angela