I was going to guess that the moisture control mix has some kind of water-holding agent & suggest against using it. I'd also suggest not potting these up too large, the combination of too large a pot & too wet a mix can surely invite rot. From my observations, these plants prefer smaller pots, they do fine rootbound or tight in their pots. They don't grow big roots, rather a potato-like tuber & some roots from there. The 3 or 4 I have I've grown each from single leaves or a single fat water-retentive stem (don't know what they're called). I grow them mostly in unglazed clay & give a light to medium watering once a wk (the pot it's in can't take a heavy watering). I don't remember what mix I'm using (I make my own), but am guessing it's something like Cactus & Succulent mix combined w/ perlite or pumice (abt 30% of either) to ensure the fast ddrainage.

Oh another thought- Utzy if your plants are all new nursery plants, they will need some time to settle in to your garden. Their growth pattern in a container will not be the same as when they're established themselves in your garden soil. Plus the nursery may have been over-fertlizing them. Next year they will no doubt have a better appearance! Re: milkweed, well I manage mine closely! Ma nature knows what she's doing, but her beautiful order has been terribly disrupted by mankind, so the Monarchs need all the help they can get. I patrol them milkweed plants regularly for insects, many of which are predators of the Monarch larvae, or degrade the quality of the foliage. I also regularly pinch and sometimes cut back the Common milkweed by half or so, because this prompts them to send up tender fresh new shoots, which are much more palatable for small Monarch caterpillars (they have a hard time chewing through the tough big leaves). Now I just need some Monarch mamas to come through!

Apologies for disagreeing, but the POTENTIAL for growth and health of plants in larger pots with plenty of room for roots to run is much greater than plants grown tight in smaller pots. IOW, No Plant 'Likes' to be Rootbound. If they did, Mother Nature would have programmed the root systems of her charges to grow in tight little cubes and cones directly under the stems. Since that NEVER occurs naturally, it's a good bet it's not a plant-propitious arrangement. The 'root bound myth' came into being by growers who were forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. If your soil doesn't support a soggy layer of water at the bottom of the pot (a perched water table), over-potting is impossible - you could grow a tiny but perfectly happy/healthy cutting in a 55 gallon drum filled with soil. If your soil is excessively water-retentive, you are literally forced to consider the size of the pot carefully, or suffer the consequences of over-potting - usually root rot or the cyclic death and regeneration of roots that occurs when the soil retains water excessively. We know with absolute certainty that tight roots limit the plant's vitality and growth potential, and this begins to occur at the approximate point in time where the soil/root mass can be lifted from the pot intact. This cannot be argued. You can walk up to any rootbound plant and, with a glance, assess how congested the roots are by looking at the decreasing internode length caused by root congestion and/or how the foliage is arranged on branches/stems/crowns. Even though smaller pots and root bound conditions are inherently limiting, we too often CHOOSE this limitation, because to us, the specter of root rot due to the combination of a poor soil and a larger pot is the more worrisome horn of THAT dilemma. Somehow, the idea that the lesser of two evils was conflated to mean a superlative arrangement. It's not. In fact, when we consider the comparative degrees good/ better/ best, it's well south of good. To avoid both horns of the dual perplexity, tight roots AND over-potting, simply make a soil that does not hold enough water to limit root function, regardless of pot size. Al

These salvia are done blooming. You need to cut off all the bloom stalks. New bloom spikes may appear now, but most salvia will rebloom in the fall. You should NOT be watering salvia every day. That could lead to root rot. Twice a week is OK if you don't get rain, but many salvia species can take a dry spell without damage, so watering as little as once a week may be sufficient. Here is an ARTICLE about that.