I have 2011 milkweed - lots of it. you can have some if you want. Barbi

Yes, That is the plant. The cats on the dill are not Monarch's. Monarchs have black yellow and green stripes, but no dots. They will only eat Milk Weed. Each summer in Michigan,our grand daughters and I raise a couple of monarchs in a screened covered jar. BUT we also have gobs of wild milkweed. Seems as if I am the only one in our park that has this plant, but we noticed tonight that three of the cats have started their next phase, so the new plant should be food enough for the other three.I have hopes that my plants will grow new leaves, and maybe a new family of monarchs..

There is a lot of confusion with the name butterfly weed, butterflutter. Usually, butterfly weed refers to a. tuberosa which is the common orange type that grows wild in some parts of MS, not my part. Butterfly weed/asclepias tuberosa is milkweed, since it's a type of asclepias, but not all milkweed is butterfly weed, although I've seen other types of MW erroneously called butterfly weed, too. So, to answer you question, butterfly weed IS the same as the common orange MW, assuming you're talking about the roadside orange type. Sherry

Peren.all, LOVE that photo! I enjoy grasses and have a few Pennisetums in my bed and some Carex buchananii. I know when I first started gardening with perennials, I wanted to have a meadow effect at one point, but I really don’t have enough room to do that. I like the style of Piet Oudolf who designed the Lurie Garden in New York. A similar style. I think that’s Amsonia on the far left in your photo and I’ve stuck with the ‘Blue Ice’ because that variety you grow is a little too large for my bed. What is the low yellow grower in front of the Butterfly weed? Very nice composition. I think you have the balance between a ‘natural’ look and an organized bed, just right. That’s funny, I have a grouping of 3 Pennisetum with Gaura, Nepeta Walker’s Low and Perovskias in one corner of my full sun bed, with Cranesbill along the edge. [g]. I just don’t have the Butterfly Weed in that bed, because I have pinks and I don’t like them together. I have BW in another bed that I’m hoping to rearrange and add to in the fall. I love Agastaches, Salvias and Penstemons. I would love a whole bed of them, but I’ve tried a lot of them over the years and a lot of them are still not hardy here in z6b, and I have heavy soil. They grow for me, but not vigorously and I usually lose them over the winter. There are a few varieties that I’ve kept going. I do like ‘Caradonna’ and I plan on adding that for sure. My geraniums have been fried in the heat, as well as Heucheras. You’ve had higher temps in Canada then I have had here. I’m counting my lucky stars that so far the heat has been tolerable. A few bad days close to 100, but high 80s, low 90s most of the time. We’ve had relief often enough to get through it. Monday night we had about a 1/2 inch of rain in the night and it cooled down with lower humidity. It was a high of 78 on my back porch all of yesterday and later in the afternoon it dropped to 68. Wow. We had the house fan on last night. But, it is July, so I’m sure we still have plenty of heat to come. But I would have thought you would be cooler in Canada. Such strange weather.