Butterfly weed, scarlet and tropical

[texas butterfly]

I bought several milkweed plants from a local garden shop.

The plants are:
1. Scarlet
2. Butterfly weed
3. Tropical

I think the tropical just have yellow flowers.

The scarlet and the butterfly weed look the same to me. The price was slightly higher for the scarlet milkweed.

Did I just get the same plant, but paid more for the scarlet?

[Mona Miller]

They don't have latin names on them. Butterfly weed would be Asclepias tuberosa. Tropical now comes in red/yellow combination, and yellow solid. That is Asclepias curassavica. I have no idea what the Scarlet is other than a new designer color of the tropical. Do the leaves look like the tropical?

This website says it's another name for tropical milkweed.
http://www.floridata.com/ref/A/ascl_cur.cfm
They also call it bloodflower, silkweed, Indian root

[texas butterfly]

The leaves seem to look the same to me.

I'll look closer and see if I can see any more differences.

Either way, these are really pretty plants and they will be a great addition to my butterfly garden.

[Mona Miller]

In your area, the A. curassavica is perennial. In my area, they are an annual. In my zone 7 garden, I can get them growing from seed and bloom, if I planted them from seed at the beginning of August, I'd have blooming plants by the end of September. But, we sometimes get hard frost by the end of October. They start slowly from seed, but zoom when they get mature. Cuttings can be taken and rooted by just making sure you stick the leaf node down into the soil and keep them watered.

[Pixie]

As. curassavica is one of my favorite milkweeds. Here is St. Louis it is also an annual. Last fall I harvested the seeds & kept them in a brown paper bag in the garage over the winter. Toward the end of March I potted them in several empty, sterilized yogurt cups and once they grew to about 3 inches (In June) I potted them in bigger pots & they are outside & flourishing. You can harvest your seeds, plant them & give them to friends & neighbors to get started with butterfly gardening. I gave some to my next door neighbor & hers are also growing in pots outside.

[Wyvern]

I think "scarlet" is just the red flower form of the butterfly weed (which is normally orange)