hosta_house that was such an interesting site and video. I never dreamed they could be repaired like that! I have planted milkweed this year for the first time. So far I havent seen anything on them.
Tammy

I have a Monarch Waystation (thanks to the education by Edna on this forum several years ago).

I grow milkweed and save the seeds, so my milkweed area has doubled in number of plants for this year. I gave away seeds to some of my blog readers and friends last year. Most types need cold stratification.

On my blog, I write about Monarchs quite a bit. I tried to raise awareness back in March when I heard about the overwintering problems. I've not seen a Monarch yet this year. I usually have a few in June-- then, in August through October, they come through and lay eggs--cats to eclose. I had only 7 cats last year.

My swamp milkweed (preferred by the Monarchs that visit my garden) is budding up as is the tuberosa variety. If all bloom well, I'll have more seeds to give away.

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: story I wrote this spring to raise awareness

I have plenty of milkweed, but didn't have a single Monarch this spring. It's very sad!

This was a typical scenario through last year.

Monarch life cycles in the garden

Where do you get milkweed? It used to grow all over at my Grandma's house. Can you buy it in nurseries?

krycek -- yes, you can buy it in nurseries, but I find that they charge a lot for plants. I approached two online nurseries about discounting milkweed plants for the Monarchs and I never got a response.

Look for discounts and summer sales.

Even though I haven't had any Monarchs I've been noticing the hummers using the milkweed. I don't know if they're getting nectar or insects, but I'm just happy to see someone benefiting from it.

You have to squint ... but she's there.

I grow wild milk weed and let it reseed its self, this year I've only seen 1 butterfly in the yard, I miss watching them skip from flower to flower its sad not to see them

Bear

I just have to reply to this post that I found when doing a search to learn more about swamp milkweed. A co-worker is offering free swamp milkweed plants since their's took off this year and they didn't want to weed them out. I had to do some research to see if it's something I would want and I realized I knew nothing about this plant. Everything I'm reading about this plant says to me "I must have this in my garden".
:)
Other then reseeding, is there anything else I should really know about it?

I'm so excited to attract butterflies, yesterday I saw my first ever monarch in my garden and luckily it was drinking from the butterfly weed I put in especially for it :) I love when a plant actually attracts something it's supposed to!

~Andrea

Somehow I missed that my butterfly weed was about to seed. My little brother and his family were visiting from Shreveport. He and I went out to see the butterfly garden, and I saw what I thought were web worms on the milkweed. It was the seed!!!
I had never had enough luck with butterfly weed to see seeds before. I guess you can tell I was very pleased to see this.
kay

This was my pink asclepias incarnata (swamp milkweed) last year. The blooms haven't gotten this large this year due to 21 days straight of 90+ degree weather and no rain.

I have it planted with other plants that are also butterfly magnets -- joe pye weed, ironweed and liatris ligulistylis.

The bees also love the blooms on the milkweed.

There is a beautiful clump of milkweed in the tree farm next door to my property that the farmer will be mowing down in the next couple of days. He said I can dig it up if I want to, but I have read conflicting reports on survival rates after transplanting milkweed. It is going to go back into the 90's this weekend if that makes a difference. Please share your experiences transplanting milkweed. I will try to save this clump if I can. It is really beautiful right now, but so far I have not seen any monarchs on it.

Carol

Carol,

I have moved the swamp milkweed successfully, but I haven't tried to move the others that prefer, dry, lean soil.

My swamp milkweed garden was overrun with clover this spring, so I dug up every plant, dug out all the clover, replenished the soil with a lot of organic cow compost and all the clumps are happy.

It is very late to emerge, sometimes mid-late May in my zone. So, mark it carefully. It is the leaves that are important to the Monarch caterpillars.

Cameron

I am really hoping that when we finally get the back yard installed that the better soil and more access to water will help me better grow butterfly plants. I really think that after getting the back yard done I need to overhaul the front yard and improve the soil a lot. It is just suffering with the heat we've gotten the last several years and I can't grow many of these beautiful plants (the ground just gets too dry).
We have an asclepias at church that I grew from seed. I think it's the most common variety - a purple flower which is fleeting and sort of flops over. Butterflies tend to ignore it? It smells fantastic! But I don't seem any butterflies there (maybe too shady). I love it's thick leaves.

Luckily I have now seemed to establish orange butterfly weed in my garden, it's on it's 2nd flowering this year. I usually have the tropical orange/red/yellow bicolor too but it petered out the last few years. Guess I need to get more seeds!!

I have tons of wild milkweed in the meadow and always have tons of monarchs. I will be on the lookout this year to see if there are less this year than others. That is quite sad! The weather has been quite erratic here this year.

Last year, I gave away a lot of the swamp milkweed seed on my blog. Due to the drought, the blooms haven't yet been big. My orange milkweed is blooming. If I get seeds from either type, I'll offer them here until I run out.

My first Monarch of 2010 just showed up! SHE looks great and hope they'll be eggs on the milkweed. I followed her around and here are the plants she loves:

stick verbena bonariensis
cosmos
zinnias
purple coneflowers
milkweed
joe pye weed
ironweed (vernonia)
buddleia
agastache (the bottle brush blooms such as 'Blue Fortune' and 'Purple Haze')