Milkweeds tend to be late and slow...but..I do know my friend in Austin has the tropical milkweed flowering since shortly after Christmas.

I saw some antelope horn milkweed youngster the other day. Maybe they never died during our non winter.

I'm on the upper edge of the southern half of Texas, west of Austin. The two most common milkweeds here are Asclepias asperula (Antelope-Horns) and A. oenotheroides (Hierba de Zizotes). I see both in my front yard each year, and though March starts tomorrow I have not yet seen any. We definitely had a zone 9A winter instead of the normal 8B.

Texas Milkweed is coming back west of San Antonio. The Tropical Milkweed never truly died back. Haven't seen Antelope Horns yet.

zippity1,

Yikes, are these babies of resident Monarchs? How wonderful to have little caterpillars already, no matter the source. Maybe some will join the migration North this year and help increase the numbers! :-)

Are you referring to Narrow
leaf Milkweed - Asclepias fascicularis - aka Mexican Whorled Milkweed or to Asclepias curassavica - aka Tropical (some also refer to this as Mexican Milkweed)? The reason I asked is I'm attempting to grow Asclepias fascicularis this year. It isn't native to my area but I like to try new plants and thought, if it's growing well for you, perhaps it will do well here for me.

Mary

oops sorry i didn't notice this for several days sorry yes they are the babies of resident Monarchs and i've have had caterpillars throughout dec, jan, and february i had a half dozen on one camellia plant Christmas eve

i believe these milkweeds re the tropical "mexican" milkweed and i wish you much luck with your milkweed

I live in the DFW area and one of the milkweed plants never died off this time around. So I have one.

I'm closer to Houston and had milkweed through the winter. We had at least 20 caterpillars in January and February and had another 5 go off to become butterflies last week But I do have both volunteer plants and some that we started from seed in pots that have sprouted up.

antelope horn and green (?) milkweed is coming back, just north of San Antonio.

I saw my first antelope and I am seeing the A texana too.

i've been reading a lot and now i find that any milkweed still around nov through feb should have been cut down....all the way to the ground.....trying to save the monarchs from a parasitic problem which apparently causes death and occurs when monarchs cats develope in the winter months......oh dear guess i have a lot of cutting to do in the next few days and i'll have to pull up millions of tropical milkweed apparently this problem doesn't occur with native milkweed.....due to them dieing back in winter......

Our winter was mild.

Unless there's a new something I don't know about that causes illness, zippity1, I don't think you need to pull up your tropical milkweed, just cut it back. The roots will regenerate fresh foliage. It is spores that can remain on the foliage and stems that make the Monarchs ill when they land on the leaves or deposit eggs that hatch and eat the plant material that causes the butterflies to sicken and perish. Cut the MW back, seal up the debris in a plastic garbage bag and throw away. The new growth should be safe, shouldn't it? Is there something I've missed?

Mary

I'm not sure if this is the parasite you are talking about but I have seen a couple of Monarch caterpillars die from something on the milkweed that grows wild at the local park. The caterpillars that have died stick to the plant, turn black, and begin to grow fuzzy mold.