Swan plant any advice

[BrisbaneAustralia]

Hi from Brisbane Australia
Who grows swan plant for wanderers? In Australia we mainly have the swan plant for milkweed although there is a little tropical MW around too, Swan seems to grow really fast and comes back from being cut back really fast especially as I am using some basic out door bubbler hydro ponic set ups with some of the plabnts with excellent results.. I have around 60 cats which are just ravenous on the leaves I think they seem to prefer this to tropical as the leaves seem to stay softer even when large.
I'll try and get some pics later in the week

Mick

[Mona Miller]

A friend of mine gave me several plants last year. They grew about 5 to 6ft high. The Monarchs did use them to lay eggs. It is not hardy in my area. We treat it as an annual.

Johnny's Select Seed has it for sell:
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/search.aspx? ... =asclepias
Asclepias
Gomphocarpus physocarpus
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-6484-oscar.aspx

I gave a teacher friend some seeds. She actually cut a bunch and took them to a friend's wedding.

Monarch Trust in New Zealand has plenty of reports of people growing, nurseries growing and using this plant for Monarchs.
http://www.monarch.org.nz/monarch/

[maryeleek]

I don't have any advice but I've had good luck with seed germination so I think it will be easy to grow it as an annual in my zone 7b. My first time attempting to grow it and I'm excited to learn about a 'new to me' plant for the lovely Monarchs.

Mary

[Koshka]

I have just started raising cats in Brisbane. I have been finding wild swan plants around Brisbane to feed my caterpillars. I have been taking cuttings - I just give a clean cut and shove in moist seed raising mix - at the moment about 70% of these take. I have not seen anyone selling milkweed plants in Brisbane - they are not particularly ornamental. Since starting to look I have found 3 sites in Brisbane with the swan plant growing wildly. It tends to like the creek flats. Also at the moment the plants are full of eggs and quite a few cats as well.
I did find an ebay seller in Australia who sells tropical mikweed seeds.
For those who dont know, bringing seeds into Australia can get you in big trouble. Milkweed is introduced and in Western Australia swan plant is a declared weed (I am led to believe) so you are not allowed to grow it.

[Mona Miller]

http://www.butterflybreeders.org/public ... =Australia
Try some of the butterfly breeders in Australia. I bet they could hook you up with more plants/seeds.