common milkweed is a wonderful plant, pollinators love it, its a must for monarchs and its great food for people as well. The shoots are my favorite, they are similar to asparagus, except its WAY easier to grow, its a bit more tender and its a bit more flavorful. New leaves are ok but not great and the flowers and young pods make good fritters.

Greylady, you can grow other species that are much better behaved and grow in clumps instead of spreading by runners. Swamp milkweed or Asclepias incarnata is a Monarch favorite and is easy to grow in the garden, prefers full sun and med-wet soil. Butterfly weed A. tuberosa is another good one for full sun, dry and well-drained soil. Tropical milkweed A. curassavica can be grown as an annual and has a longer bloom period. The Monarchs supposedly love this one too, we'll see because I winter-sowed a bunch of it and have lots of sprouts. I saw the first Monarch caterpillar on my Swamp milkweed last year.

byrdlady, it's so good to hear this! where i grew up in western PA therew were syriaca grwing everywhere roadside, with nearly every patch having monarch colonies. now the milkweed is less common, because of more mowing, and monarchs are much less common, even up there. i've been trying to get syriaca going here, too. i have some nice patches of tuberosum after working on it for 8 or 9 yrs, and have grown currasvica from seed before. recently got some otherr ones (don't recall off the top), and just this yr, noticed 3 cats on my tuberosum. so maybe it does take a while for them to come. ralph gave me some potted currasavica, which i hope to overwinter in the cool basement, and some cats, too. hoping they'll come back in spring and lay eggs. the last one is making a chrysalis now. your expeience heartens me that i wasn't doing anything wrong. tammy

Thanks for the info, macranthos. Maybe I do need to give them about a month then. Incidentally, I asked the nursery if they would replace my plants if they didn't come up. She said that you have 14 days from the date of delivery to report any problems. But hey, if they're dormant in the first place, how exactly do you know if there are any "problems"? That's absurd. Anyway, if my plants don't come up and they don't send me replacements, I'll be contacting my credit-card company. ;)