All Asclepias species are late to emerge. A couple of my A. tuberosa (butterfly weed) that are in one of the warmest gardens are just barely peeking up, others are not showing yet. In the same bed, the A. syriaca is not showing yet. Don't give up on any milkweeds yet by any means.

In my experience butterfly weed is a pretty durable perennial, however it likes a well-drained soil and perhaps requires that over the winter.

very late to emerge.. post back in another month.. and let us know ..

think of it this way... soil warmth is the trigger.. and its deep rooted plant.. and until the nights quit going near 30 .. the depth of soil heat is not happening ... and it wont show.. until you have soil heat at depth ...

ken

Thanks for the reassurance terrene and Ken. I am not really worried at this point but given the extended warm temps this spring coupled with the fact that both are in sunny areas of the garden with one actually close to the foundation of the house I am a little bit surprised to see nothing yet.

Mine here in the Detroit area don't often emerge until mid-late May, then grow rapidly in bloom by mid-late June or early July.

the real trick.. is not planting something on top of it.. because you forgot they were down there.. lol..

i have one in the middle of a flowering almond.. lol ...

ken

ken wrote: because you forgot they were down there

No problem in that regard. Specifically, each fall I mark each plant put in the ground that growing season with a 6" white plastic 'stake'. And so next spring I know something is expected to grow in the area.

When in your zone, I never had good luck with A. tuberosa showing back up the next year, but A. incarnata always did. Agreed they are late to start.

I have at least 6 butterfly weeds, various places in my yard, and none have broken ground yet.

Thanks for that vote of confidence capecodder. I will be interested in seeing when my two do break ground for the start of their first full season in my garden.

Rouge, I'm not sure where you're located, but I'm in Mass., it's been a very warm and dry spring. Just checked the A tuberosa in the xeric garden and another one is popping up. The biggest one is up about 1 inch or so.

I am a little concerned about your plant near the foundation - I would expect any plantings close to a house foundation or similar structure (south side of stone wall for example) to be in a warmer microclimate and be further along.

However, there is also natural variation within a species too - some individuals are earlier growers/bloomers than others.

I agree with respect to that 'foundation' plant. Of course all I can do is wait...hopefully it will show itself by...May 1st.

If I make the assumption that my two will return maybe the delay is in part due to its 'youth' i.e. this was only its first winter.

Have you been able to decide which kind they are? What color were the flowers?

Where were they planted? Butterfly weed are pretty hardy if it's full sun and drained soil. I planted mines 2 years ago. They were tiny, didn't flower and appear to died back in fall. The next year, I didn't see them until Late May to June, but they came back 3x bigger and bloom for a long time.

This year, they came back in March, which is crazy, but it's a crazy winter and the roots were probably more established.

Paul

Has not been a warm spring here in my far north zone 3, though I was suprised when today I noticed that the 'Pink Delight' planted near the foundation has growth showing at the base :)

Terrance

ooops, I guess I should NOT have been watching tv at the same time, as I see that this thread is regarding butterfly weed and not butterfly bush ... :)

Terrance

purpleinopp wrote: What color were the flowers?

I planted the two plants last summer. A few orange flowers but not many.

(I thought all butterfly weeds gave forth those outstanding *orange* flowers?)

It sounds like yours are A. tuberosa. There are many kinds of Asclepias. They come in a variety of colors including white, pink, yellow & red, although a lot of them are not hardy in zone 5.

Yes, I found the tag for my 2 'weeds' and they are both Asclepias tuberosa grown in Canada and listed as hardy to zone 3 USDA.

The orange Asclepais Tuberosa is my favorite and have long blooms and beautiful flowers. This year, I am going to plant some asclepias incarnata in the backyard area that gets flooded occassionally.

Paul

My orange butterfly weed started showing itself about a week ago, & we have been having unseasonably warm weather here. I usually don't see them til May.

I planted four asclepias tuberosa seedlings last year and they were still alive at the end of the season. Two came up maybe a couple weeks ago or more and are five or six inches tall. The other two haven't shown up yet but it cooled off a little so I'm hoping when it gets warm again they'll wake up.

There are A tuberosa colors that are close to yellow, and some that are close to red.

I just checked the xeric garden this morning, as it started to drizzle (yippeee rain!). The 3 most mature clumps are the ones that are up, 2 are orange and 1 yellow. But I know there are some smaller plants in that garden and they aren't up yet. So perhaps when they are small, they're slower?

As for the other milkweeds, it is variable, some are up (A. syriaca and A. exaltata) and some aren't (A. purpurascens, A. variegata).

I have two more Butterfly Weed plants just starting to come up. The first two came up a month ago and already have flower buds. I planted all four at the same time last year as seedlings. It's a nice surprise to see the other two. I had just about given up on them. They are all from a 'Gay Butterflies' seed packet and I'm really hoping to get some red flowers rather than orange or yellow. They weren't big enough to bloom last year.

Thanks for the update christie.

I am the OP and just this past weekend I finally had one of the plants barely break through the soil and so it will be fine but nothing from the other. Oh well 1 out of 2 aint bad ;)?

Mine are already blooming.

I've had a few more little A. tuberosa come up in the xeric garden, but I know there are a couple of others in that bed and they are still no shows. The biggest one is up about 6 inches, and it's very bushy.

Rouge glad to hear one of yours showed up. The other one still might too!

Asclepias is a weird genus of plants and not all that easy to grow. They can be fussy about location, attract a bunch of different insects which can degrade the quality of the plant (Monarch larvae being an exception, of course!), get strange wilts and fungus, some of them spread by runners and show up in different places each year, and the occasional critter will chomp it down. But they're beautiful, and I love raising Monarchs.

Thanks for your post terrene; lots of good info.

Yes echinacemaniac I have seen your beautiful spring 2012 pictures. For me I wont see anything like this until probably early to mid June!

Did you post a photo of your butterfly weed Echinaceamaniac?
Rouge - let us know if the other shows up. Hope so.

Mine have all come up and my A. tuberosa have flower buds on them already.

Karen

terrene wrote: Rouge glad to hear one of yours showed up. The other one still might too!

I literally had a trowel in my hand and was about to dig out the area in question to make way for an Astranti I had bought this past weekend and lo and behold on May 14 I think I see nubs of new growth! If I am correct then I might see blooms in....September? ;)

I'm in zone 7b.

My asclepias purpurascens is the first to bloom every year. It looks great right now. (links to my blog photo of it) The blooms are huge and the plant doesn't fall over after heavy rain.

The tuberosa (orange) have buds and will bloom next.

My incarnata (swamp milkweed in white and pink) foliage is up early this year, but no buds yet.

i've seen one Monarch so far. I usually see many more in August rather than spring/early summer.

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: my purple milkweed in bloom May 2012

If they're going to bloom, I don't think it will take that long Rouge. They grow fast. Good thing you didn't go out a day earlier with your shovel.
We need to remember to be patient next year too.

Cameron - that Purple Milkweed is pretty! I'm planted out a few seedlings of that one this spring and I'm anxious to see them bloom.

I just posted on another message that my 5 year old Butterfly Weed just emerged late last week. I don't ever remember it taking this long, and I had my shovel ready to go too. I had even scratched around the mulch and didn't find anything there. And then, last week, there is was! Patience with plants is indeed a virtue!
Linda

Christie - that purple has been really hardy and reliable. The blooms never disappoint. I noticed today that there are more buds coming on offshoots.

Cameron

How great that your other one showed up! You will probably see blooms in July or August, and it may be only a few if the plants are small.

Asclepias can be slow and unpredictable, especially when they are small. I still have some A. tuberosa, variegata, and purpurascens that hasn't showed yet, although the largest plants of these species have showed.

Wonbyherwits, your purple milkweed is very pretty. Can't wait to see those bloom in my garden. There are 2 stalks that look like they might bloom this year, although I would have had the first one last year, except a critter nipped the top right off. Probably a dumb deer (don't have a terrible problem with them though).

What has your experience been in transplanting your Asclepais tuberosa? I can foresee that my two would benefit from being moved to a different location.

Terrene - There is a milkweed bug (do an internet image search) that will literally shave the blooms. Aphids can be an issue. I've not had Goldfinch take those seeds, but they always break stems and blooms to eat seeds from verbena bonariensis and susans. My milkweed is right beside the where the deer sleep every night and they've never touched any milkweed. Sometimes a fawn will taste something and spit it out!

Rouge - asclepias tuberosa is difficult to move unless it's very young. Long taproot on older plants! You might consider collecting seeds (when you see silky threads in the burst pods with dried seeds). The seeds need cold stratification, so I sow them when the seeds would naturally drop from the plant. Mark the spot where you sow the seeds.

Cameron

Thanks Cameron for that info. I suspected this given the tap/tuber root but given mine two are only into their second season I may try this fall. This gives me the summer to see how big they get.

(Last summer I successfully transplanted "Sea Holly"...tap root and all)

I was just out in the garden and there are MONARCH CATERPILLARS on the purple milkweed! I'm so excited! I've seen only one butterfly so far and I don't usually have the cats until August when more butterflies show up. The milkweed was up so early this year and it was a good thing.

Interesting -- the cats were in the blooms of the purple milkweed. I don't usually see them on the blooms (just the leaves), but they were very active. Clearly, they've been eating well because they're big enough for me to see.

I checked my incarnata and tuberosa varieties and didn't see any cats on those (so far).

Cameron

Congrats on having cats! I am waiting here and have some good-sized A. syriaca plants that probably could support some larvae at this point.

Yes I think it was one of those dumb young deer that nipped off the tip of the purple milkweed and then spit it out, because it was laying on the ground! I had a Momma and 3 babies frequenting the back yard last year.

Rouge, I transplant A. tuberosa all the time. If you can get as much of the root system as possible in a large root ball (probably not hard if they are small), then you can certainly transplant. A. tuberosa is slow growing to begin with, and transplanting will set it back. Also, sometimes I get re-sprouting from pieces of root left behind.

{{gwi:210597}}

Went out this evening and took photos. I counted six caterpillars on this clump of purple milkweed.

Cameron