Lena, so sorry you weren't in time to pick up some Purple Milkweed. I was gone for most of the summer so wasn't here to tend to or observe my in-ground plants. Many stalks of the Purple MW still have a few tatty looking leaves on the tips but for all intents and purposes, they are gone. I don't know if they would have fared any better if I'd been here. I only realized this spring that I even had Purple Milkweed. Can't remember starting and planting out seedlings but lo and behold, the first blooms produced by these plants were certainly Purple Milkweed bloom heads. Although the blooms were worked over feverishly by the wild bee's, no seed pods this year. :-( The little seedlings I had which were so healthy looking when I left are pretty much gone. I don't know if the roots are still alive. Some seedlings still had a few tatty looking leaves on them when I first got home so I'm hopeful it is just their time to decline for the season. I believe, based on the plant activity this spring, that this milkweed spreads much like the common milkweed. Unfortunately, most of the native milkweeds in my garden look pretty rough before my growing season is done. The little A perennis is still going strong, healthy and blooming so I'm planning on planting a lot more for next year. And I will be growing the Mexican AKA Tropical milkweed again next year for the blooms. So many little insects in my garden nectar on their continuous blooms. Just have to be diligent about squishing the aphids. :-) Mary

I'm in zone 6 too. The curassavica here might get one or two volunteers in a good year, but not enough or dependable enough to rely on for new plants. Is all of New Jersey in zone 6? You have a couple native mikweeds that are very cool. The Asclepias lanceolata and A. rubra. Being on the coast, New Jersey might be slightly more favorable for volunteers. The people in the butterfly forum were all starting curassavica from cuttings this year because there were so many Monarch caterpillars. Another option, if your milkweeds get too big inside start many more from cuttings. It's an easy process. I think with winter sowing that soaking the seeds for a few hours is enough for the north american native milkweeds. They will be exposed to moisture all winter. The tropicals are ok to soak for 24 hours. Since I noticed the couple A. arenaria seeds popping I decided to cut back the soaking time on the natives.

Oh no! I’d be so disappointed to see half of my roses eaten! Ugh, I’m sorry. It’s hard to not feel frustrated with the wildlife. We have a handful of cucumbers we planted on the side of our chicken coop that have been a nice treat for a groundhog. My barn cats had 5 kittens this summer and they have been terrorizing my gardens! Not eating anything obviously, but they think all of my plants and flowers are toys to play with. I’ll have to track down some good pictures of our orchard and farm. Our apple trees are getting old so we’ll need to replace them in the next 5 years or so. Sam, the goat, is pretty entertaining when he’s not eating my plants. My kids like to make a game of “Where is Sam today”. He’s almost never where he’s supposed to be! I plant to put most of my roses in an area around my house where deer usually won’t go. We’ve also been putting our hair (after haircuts) in my garden beds...we read that this keeps them away? I don’t know if it works but we have strawberries on one side of our house that never get bothered by animals so I’ve assumed the hair has helped.

Jan, I'm in washington state, but nowhere near any of the fires, our air quality seems to be slowly improving, but it's still not good. What I've taken to doing with my bigger plants, (and if I can, it all depends on the pot), is submmerging just the pot in water for an hour or two (I usually do this if I have more than one reason to soak the root ball), then using a strong hose or other sprayer to spray off the leaves. What I noticed about the red mites is that they'll drop down into the soil (where they overwinter) and then hide, once whatever spray is gone, they crawl back up into the plant. If the soil is in water, they fall into the water and drown in about an hour. Any that were already knocked into the soil will drown, and the plant should be clean. Sometimes you don't get them all so you have to repeat once or twice, but for an indoor tree it usually does the trick. If the tree is big I've taken to using light sprays with rubbing alcohol and cleaning the leaves, but mine are indoors so I've managed to keep them off for the most part. If the tree is outside where they are horticultural oil sprays and washing them down seems to help, but a large spider population seems to do more. I've heard that predatory mites can be successfully introduced into pots to control them as well, but I've never tried it. Let's see, a good practice plant. It all depends on what grows quickly in your area. I first practiced on a fast growing vine I had, but I never knew what it was. It was given to me as a gift and grew like a weed, left alone it could take over a room very quickly. I also practiced on the roots of a rhyzomatus begonia that I have that required it because it grew so fast, but that doesn't have normal roots. If you can get your hands on a cheap small fig tree, (or ask someone who has a tree for one of the root sprouts) they can take a lot and come back, honestly my best practice was on figs because my mother had a tree that was always popping sprouts around it. I guess good practice plants depend on what you have available and what grows quickly where you are that has ordinary roots.