It grows among other plants in nature. Whether it will fit into your garden depends on which type of milkweed you are growing and what type of garden you have. I've grown mostly A. Incarnata and A. Tuberosa which stay in pretty well-behaved clumps. The incarnata reseeds generously, but are very easy to pull in their first season. Does that answer your question? Martha

Hi Linda; I am not that far from you in the Dayton area. There are lots of milkweed to choose from. All have different properties. So you are wise in asking questions instead of putting any old thing in and regretting it later. I will give you the info I have on the "big four" that most people grow and we grow up here at the Butterfly house at Cox. I also have grown most of these in my yard. 1) Asclepias curassavica - a.k.a. tropical milkweed, scarlet milkweed, blood flower. For us, we consider it an annual. I have only had it reseed once during a very mild winter. It produces a lot of seeds and can be collected to replant every year. It is loved by monarchs and has a medium high cardiac glycoside (CGs) level (the chemical that makes monarchs distasteful). The levels are important for a variety of reasons. Too high, bad for caterpillars, too low, they are not protected from a variety of things, including parasitic wasps and flies. The only bad things this milkweed is that it is an annual, so you have to replant it. Also in some parts of the country, mainly Florida, it does induce some migrating monarchs to stop migration and start reproducing. Comes in a yellow flower form as well. 2) Asclepias syriaca - A.K.A common or field milkweed. This is the McDonalds of the milkweed world. It has medium levels of CGs. The pros; It has large profuse blooms that attract all kinds of pollinators. The fragrance is unbelievable at times. Monarchs use it fairly well. Comes up pretty reliably year to year. The cons; it is a beast in the home garden, meaning that it can easily take over your yard, your neighbor's yard, etc, through "runners". The sap is profuse if a leaf or stem is broken and some people are very allergic to the sap(as it has tons of latex). Not the best monarch host plant due to the sap (young caterpillars can die from it easily). 3) Asclepias incarnata - a.k.a. swamp milkweed, ice ballet, rose milkweed. Medium to low CGs. Pros: Favorite of monarchs. They will use this one over a lot of the others. Pretty pink blooms. attracts a lot of pollinators. Fairly reliable (some people have trouble getting it to return year to year). Reseeds reliably and does not form "runners". There are not too many seedlings and I can transplant them. Cons; prefers moist soils. If you grow it in full sun, in clay, you need to keep it watered. I have it in high organic soils in partial shade and it does well without me watering it. It can get a little funky as the plant ages. It may truly be a long lived perennial. meaning it really only comes back 2 - 4 years. I am watching that in my garden. Milkweed aphids seem to really like this one. 4) Asclepias tuberosa- A.K.A butterfly weed, shorter milkweed up to 24 inches. Medium CGs Pros; good color, prefers drier sites. great nectar plant. Cons; does not do well in wet soils ( I have lost many to wet winters and springs). Because it is a dry prairie plant, the leaves do not contain as much moisture as other milkweeds. Caterpillars have to consume twice as much leaf material as on other milkweeds to grow the same amount. That is one reason mom will lay her eggs preferentially on other plants. Some of the others we have used are A. physocarpa (similar properties to A. curassavica), A. verticillata, A. purpurascens, A. viridis. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

I actually think a milkweed forum might be too narrow a topic to keep active. And how many people are going to be interested in milkweed and not interested in butterflies? There are native plant forums and prairie forums and woodland forums that have folk who can answer questions about particular milkweeds in different climates, if people here can't help. I don't have strong feeling either way, but I have seen others on various forums who are urging GardenWeb to clean house and get rid of forums that don't get much action. It's frustrating for new people who visit a forum and ask a question, but don't get a response for weeks or months because they happened across a slow forum. Just food for thought. Martha

I think there have been enough 'scares' about posting personal info on the Internet which is why most people won't give out their specific location, Larry. Many people do not understand what it takes to raise butterflies nor do they realize the sheer number of different lepidoptera in the world so when they do ask, "What is the name of the orange butterfly I saw?" or "I found a caterpillar on my Salvia. What is it?" then they don't realize they are asking such a difficult question to answer without more data. Just today, I went to drop off a prescription at the pharmacy and the gal there, who always asks about my butterfly endeavors says, "Sherry! I need caterpillars! I ordered this butterfly thing and they didn't send me and my kids any caterpillars!" I gave her a brochure I'd made up and asked, "What types of plants do you have in your garden? You need to have food to feed the caterpillars. I won't give you any caterpillars if you don't have anything to feed them. Read my brochure, go online to the webpage, and see if you are going to be able to feed any caterpillars first." She had no concept. She simply figured she had a pop-up she bought her children for $7.99 and she was ready to raise butterflies. As Jeff beautifully wrote in his last statement, there is a delicate balance to maintain when providing information to the enthusiastic. :) It is easy to squelch enthusiasm and as an educator, unfortunately, I've seen too many teachers do this with how they answer the questions of learners. We want to encourage and nurture those who ask questions and by providing our own questions, is part of the learning process. After all, isn't that what science is all about? The systematic acquiring of knowledge through questioning and observing? Sherry in Southern California (South Coast Metro, Zone 9)