swamp milkweed seeds

[chanceychelsey]

I put in a monarch butterfly garden this summer with 4 swamp milkweed plants that did very well. They however, did not flower. Would anyone be interested in sharing some of their seeds?

Thanks
Waystation 927
Tottenham, Ont

[freda]

I grow common milkweed and only had two seedpods this year...I had nipped off all the tops for the tiny cats. I did find some ditch milkweed along the highway, in an area where I was sure there had been caterpillar activity earlier. There are LOTS of milkweed patches which had no visitors...guess they were the red-stemmed kind. But the areas I was sure of, produced a number of seed pods. I collected them before they were fully mature and they continued to do so and eventually split and spread themselves around quite nicely. But, no, I don't have any seeds to spare....I DID however, see some nice plants in your area ditches in early September, which were starting to develop seed pods. Most of the patches had been mowed down, but there were still plants beyond the mower's reach. I haven't paid attention to the time frame Seed-to-Flower...will they flower the first year?

[John Beaulieu]

Hi Sharon

I can give you some swamp milkweed seeds. I have three kinds and will give you some of each. One is from a garden centre cultivar, 'Soul Mate' (and I may have a few white 'Ice Ballet'. I have local swamp milkweed seeds and some from up the Bruce Peninsula (Stokes Bay), which I find the strongest grower and most colourful.
E-mail me your postal address and I will get them off to you. I have found that fall sowing works very well and there was no advantage to starting them indoors early in peat pots or the like. The ones I started early were in fact surpassed by the ones sown the previous fall.

Of all the various species of milkweed that I have sown, the swamp (Asclepias incarnata), is the best to grow from seed.

John
butterflies@look.ca