Wendy it sounds like they need warmer temps to sprout. I've got some incarnata that has sprouted, but 2 other containers haven't and neither has the purple milkweed (A. purpurascens). Caryl, A. syriaca is a wonderful plant, very important host plant for Monarch butterflies, also the flowers have a heavenly fragrance. Otherwise, it is not a great garden plant - it spreads by rhizomes, pretty much where it feels like. I have 3 established patches of it in the yard, all 3 "planted themselves". One of them is in the middle of a woodland garden and it gets very little sun! I've tried transplanting the stalks to another spot, and guess what - it died in the new spot, and came back like gangbusters in the woodland garden.... :-/ Now I let it grow where it wants, and garden around it. It attracts the Monarchs to the yard, and even though the plants growing in shade don't flower, they do provide some handy food for the caterpillars.

Common milkweed might get two feet tall the first year, but it will take all summer to accomplish this. The root system will be growing below ground, and it is the root system that gives the plant a head start the next growing season. It makes sense to remove monarch eggs and caterpillars from milkweed seedlings, but the monarchs don't agree. The female monarchs are very capable of finding younger milkweed plants, even when they are hidden in the grass. They seem to prefer them.

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

They will come up in the spring. Patience is the key. Keep your eye on them and when they get their third set of leaves, you can transplant them into the ground or a large pot. They need to be potted/planted in very poor soil/garden dirt.