In your zone I think you can start them now without any major concern. You should have Monarchs that enjoy them through the winter. For me the tropical milkweed works best.

Bea, I had a nice little plot of A. tuberosa from tiny plants I bought from a grower in the W. Palm Beach area. I cut them back prior to Irma's arrival, but they got "burned" from the wind. Yesterday I got on my knees to trim all the dead plant material and was happy to see that new shoots are already on the way. These never grew long enough to produce seed pods, but if I ever get any you are welcome to some. Gotta remind me, tho'! I am more interested in the taller varieties, and the local monarchs are, too. The leaves on the tuberosa appear to be too small for the caterpillars, but the flowers do feed the mature monarchs.

pattybea not sure about your zone but I see no reason why you cant start them whenever. Personally in my experience, if I wanted milkweed in spring I start in fall if it's a species that will grow through the winter (in your case yes, because you are zone 10 any species that likes your zone should grow through "winter" as well). If you get monarchs in winter they might not be mature enough then, though, so you might have to buy potted milkweeds to tide over your cats. Fall/winter actually might be preferable for many species because it gives them enough mild weather to focus on building their long tap roots :)

@bea I picked up a A. tuberosa at this Home Depot just this Sunday, seemed to be several more but they are not labeled as anything other than "milkweed" and "sun". There's the original orange color one and a yellow one I think. Definitely tuberosa though and not tropcial milkweed (shorter, narrow leaves that curl/less smooth).

They were not marked for butterfly gardening so I'm keeping mine quarantined until next year (just in case they were sprayed). You enter the garden center from the south, they were in northeast tip of plant rows, facing the pots shelves. Each pot is actually 3 mature plants so they actually were a good deal. Hope that helps! There were at least 5 pots [so 15 plants] when I was there.

Just saying that in case you wanted some backups if the seeds didn't work. Unfortunately it does not say the seed origins so it could be northern stock.

Edit: Home Depot has a policy where they must label anything with neonicotinoids (a persistent systemic pesticide) as having it and I dont think any of these had that label but I'm still quarantining mine in case it was sprayed with something else bc no organic label either

Thanks Jay. I'm going to my local HD this morning to look for them.

Jay I checked at my HD. Nada. Thanks for alerting me though.

Be careful with HD Milkweed. They use systemic insecticide on them. I bought one a few years ago and all the caterpillars died. You have to check, they now put a tag saying their plants were treated with insecticide but many tags are missing.

I would never use their Milkweed.

Jane

It is a bit of a hit and miss, Jane. I agree. The systemic does come out after a short time, however. I don't think I've ever seen that on milkweed from there, but I haven't purchased any from HD for a while. You think the same problem would appear from Lowes?

I've grown the tropical MW, the tuberose - both the orange and the yellow, perennis, the giant white milkweed and the incarnata - both white and pink. Most where grown from seed. The tuberosa and the incarnata did have to be cold stratified. You can either search for seeds all ready cold stratified on eBay or do it yourself. I just soaked the seeds for 24 hours, then poured them right over a small pot of pre moistened potting soil, let it drain well then double zip lock bag the pot and put in the back of the refrigerator for 5-6 weeks. They will pop up as soon as you put them outdoors! In my yard, the perennis is the first to be devoured, then the tropical / tuberosa / incarnata all about the same time; and finally when nothing else is left they will eat the giant white. I'm hoping to add a balloon flower MW and a desert MW this year.