If you can find some Asclepias curassavica (an annual for me and you), it is the favored milkweed host for the Monarchs. Sometimes you can find seed, and now would be a good time to start them. I'm not sure how the Monarchs do with the milkweed cultivars like you mentioned. Anyone else know? Native milkweeds are good, and probably work the best. These include the species A. syriaca (common milkweed), A. incarnata (swamp milkweed), A. viridiflora (green milkweed; probably starts growing earlier than most); A. purpurescens (purple milkweed), and A. verticillata (whorled milkweed, but has very fine, feathery foliage, not very substantial for feeding purposes). You can get seeds from a lot of native plant seed sources, like Prairie Moon, but it sometimes is difficult to find the plants, unless you know someone who has some to share. They are difficult to "dig up" (tap rooted) and you probably should not remove any from their native habitat anyway, at least not without permission. I winter sowed a bunch of seed I purchased from various seed sources this last winter. Aristolochia macrophylla is another good pipevine that is a native in most zone 6 areas. Are you in New England, Missouri, elsewhere? You can do a search to find out what is native to your region. Hope this helps! Welcome to the forum! Susan

In some small measure I think I understand exactly what you mean. I am having one of those bad-back days right at the moment and cannot seem to find the courage to try to find a comfortable position somewhere and not move at all just to stop the pain for awhile. At the slightest tilting of my upper body to the left and to a slightly lesser degree to the right and the pain is beyond description. It literally feels as though I am going to divide at the lower back and be on the ground in two pieces. Now all I need is one of my horrible migraine type headaches and I will probably just put myself out for the day. It is times like this, and sadly they are frequent, when I really wonder what on earth possessed me to put in this extensive garden without having someone install a sprinkler system on a timing device. I know you wrestle with far more life-threatening issues that intrude on you far more seriously than my petty stuff but physically speaking my health in terms of pain and waning mobility started at 52 and it has been a constant battle ever since. But in spite of it, I have gotten so much joy out of being able to fill the hours since then with my dogs, cats and butterflies. So I am very glad you have all those productive years to enjoy over again through your recollections. And I am very appreciative of the ability you have to allow your many forum friends to gain from you and your work. Murray

Sherry, Thanks for responding, and I'm sorry that most of yours have died. I don't have that kind because as far as I know only the A. tomentosa, A. macrophylla, and A. serpentaria would make it up here over the winter unless there are other hardy ones I don't know about. I have A. macrophylla growing and it's doing well. A. clematitis sounds like a very desirable plant to have if it would be hardy here. Larry, Thanks for replying. Yes, I know that the FAQ host plant list is a listing of members' host plant success and realize why it might be shorter than a list in a book or guide. I like to refer to the list here over mostly any list I find online because I never know if the person who made that list actually knows if certain plants are host plants or not. Reading down over some lists just makes me wonder. I appreciate your adding A. clematitis to the list. I knew I saw someone on here talk about it as being a host plant, and I suppose it was Sherry. :) Cathy

Thanks lots, Larry! Susan, I ended up purchasing the Dictamnus after having no success at trying to grow it from seed. I've never grown any at all from seed but not for the lack of trying. I never had such a difficult seed to try to get to germinate and I've grown lots. I suppose there are others out there, though, that I haven't tried that are also really difficult. Even Rose Franklin told me that they're very difficult to get to germinate. Here's what she said about Gas Plants: "Gas Plants are extremely hard to start from seed. For every 100 seeds I plant, I get less than 10 plants---and sometimes they don't germinate until two years after planting. Gas Plants are also hard to get established in the garden. I too lost several before I finally got six of them to grow. One of the toughest plants-----but one of the most beautiful of the spring bloomers!" Me again. :) I asked her about them after having gotten frustrated trying to start them several times and that's what she told me. I decided to give up the seed route and decided to purchase them. I bought 7 in 2009 and planted them outside in one of the gardens. We had a really dry year that year and it was either that or the winter that did two of them in; 5 of them came back up last spring. So I purchased 2 this past spring to replace those 2 and all of them did well this year. They must be a thirsty plant then because we had way more than our share of rain this year! That's good that you have some host plants of the Giant Swallowtail. They're such a fantastic butterfly, I think! Did you get any GSTs this year? I also want to get some Wafer Ash trees started here eventually...I keep saying that! From what I understand, they're an understory tree, so I guess I'd have to plant them in the woods. Even if it were a tree that would do good out in the yard, I think my husband would choke me if I put any more trees in the yard. lol Last year we planted a dozen Paw Paws out there (he dug and I planted). The year before that he helped me plant 4 cherry trees in the woods. This year we planted 2 tulip poplar (those came up on their own in my gardens and had to be relocated), 4 hackberries (started those from seed), 2 crapapples (babies from the one we had to cut down that was old and rotten), and 4 birch (to replace the one that was eventually ruined by the tree cutting guys that go through here every year for the utility companies). Someone had given me some Black Willow back in 2007 and so I have two very nice willow trees now that are about 7 or 8 feet high. I put those down by our stream because I figured they'd like it where there's water. I read that they can be invasive, but I doubt if they'd be any worse than that passionvine that I just got rid of (I think) this year. I got an Incense from someone but am going to keep it in a pot all the time. Now that the other one has me paranoid, I might just have some concrete poured to sit the pot on! lol Just kidding! Although...hmmm...it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to watch the bottom of the pot to make sure the roots aren't trying to wander. They aren't now yet, but I meant for the following years. If you need anything, Susan, I don't mind trying to start it for you, even a wafer ash. I know you got one, but I didn't know if you might need more. I'll attempt to start some and I hope that I'll be able to do it. I read that they need a cold, moist period followed by a warm, moist period and then a second cold moist period for the seeds to germinate. That sounds like fun! :) Cathy