Hi, Loris and everyone, I am glad you brought up the idea of pruning the MWs for fresh new growth. I never hear anyone talking about it on BF forums so I sort of had to go by trial and error. I like to try to keep my Incarnatas in bloom 'til the big onslaught of Monarchs in August and September here in Ohio and it took me a while to put together a strategy that I think might work. Here's what I try to do with my Milkweeds (incarnatas): I cut back just part of each milk weed plant. Maybe every other stem, or just the back/front of each depending on how it is growing in the garden. I try to leave about a foot of stem or more there, and also try to cut just above a node to try to get a nice branching. That way I have some of the mature plant growing and also can stimulate new growth and tender leaves. I do this with most of my perennials and I should imagine it would work with your A. incarnata too. When I did this last time I went ahead and made some rooted cuttings: I took the pruned off parts, trimmed them to a node on the bottom of each stem, left about 5 inches of stem, took off most of the leaves except maybe the top 2, then dipped them into a little Roottone and stuck them into a glass of water and left them on the kitchen counter. Now I have a 10 rooted cuttings growing in the garden. This was easy and a new 'trick' that I was happy to learn about. I wish we got some of your volunteers you pull for weeds! I never have enough milkweed. It took me a while to figure out how to work with the MWs to get the most out of them here in our growing environment in southwestern Ohio.

I have already cut back most of mine to about 1 foot because of the aphids. They keep coming to what's left up, but I keep blasting with the hose. I tend to treat most of my perennials like bulbs; I keep up as much undead stems up until they're fully gone for the season. Don't know why quite honestly. Unfortunately my tropicals are blooming beautifully so I must keep blasting with the hose, at least until the frost hits...

Just an update: the yellowing has continued into August. I've started watering a little more and it seems to have slowed but not gone away completely. It has grown very tall (probably at 4 ft right now -- I've had to stake the plant so it doesn't fall over), but after the first initial bloom in June there has been nothing. The stems are bare from the base to about 2 ft, but it still looks pretty green and bushy at the top. It almost looks like a weird little tree at this point with the bottom leaves missing lol.

Hi Mary, Hope this finds you doing well and that you had a very good growing season. These seeds did really well. They have been in flower for the past three months. I've never had a milkweed bloom so much. The first batch never did germinate. I have had tons of insect visits during this time but only two small pods that have not really developed much. I had three Monarch caterpillars on the plants and they pretty much stripped(ate) most of the foliage but the plants put out more leaves after the caterpillars molted.. I still have them in a 12" pot but will probably divide them once they stop flowering and plant them in the garden. I was wondering how your seed production has been this year? I would like to get a bunch of seed from somewhere to grow and distribute to all the folks here in my area who are into this like you and I. Any chance you might have some to share again or know someone who does and/or somewhere I can purchase some. Thanks for any help. Regards, Mark