This looks like the Arizona Milkweed I bought this spring. Asclepias angustifolia. Mine isn't nearly that tall though. Maybe since that one is close to water its taller than it would normally be in a dryer situation? We have had so much rain, many of my natives are way taller than they usually are. Mine is planted on a fast draining slope. It has white blooms with a cast of purple.

Hi Patty, always a pleasure to hear your input. - thank you! The Gold Nuggets pictured are from Four Winds and so i believe on Cuban Shaddock. The Clementines are on Carrizo. The symptoms of too little water can be similar to too much. Essentially, the roots are not functioning properly. I initially thought my issues were related to too much water and phytophthora, but by pulling the GN and later the Clem, i discovered 1/2 the roots with a bit of moisture and the other half bone dry. [the Clem had an additional issue - neighboring tree root encroachment that was taking up the resources]. One of the GN's and both Clems were in the ground, in fill clay, and on a significant slope - so no drainage issue. Pulling that GN out of the ground and allowing it to enjoy constant moisture, food and water brought it back. Moving one of the Clems to another location with water pH of 7.1 and watching it respond gave me that "aha". A key point here is to try your best to asses your specific situation and feed/water/fix accordingly. And BTW, I would like to add that I still leaf-read, but its only one data point! I have noticed that Citrus leaves show evidence of their environment anywhere from 1-7 days [drought tends show more quickly]. If you adjust for something that you see the leaves showing you, it can set you up for some very wild swings in care.... the leaves might be telling you what happened last week!. - Golf is easier because your shot gives you instant feedback! [comments always welcome - just not about my golf game please] Best of Luck - George [edited to correct rootstock-sorry for any confusion] This post was edited by Becauseican on Thu, Jul 17, 14 at 15:43

Hi Mary- Many western milkweeds naturally grow in poorer soils, A. fascicularis being one of them. Don't stress over fertilizing, or lack thereof. I feed mine monthly with a 10-5-5 type fertilizer or 20-20-20 until they reach a size I'm comfortable with. Most times, I feed them with whatever is handy sitting in the shed. After that, I fertilize by eye: if they look like they don't need it, they don't get any. Liquid or dry, makes no diff. Don't overburden yourself or overthink what you're going to feed westerns; they'll resent whatever you give them if given too much anyway. This is a photo of one of my large fascicularis. I have some smaller ones I'm growing for a butterfly garden project.

I have dozens of tropical milkweed plants in my yard which come back year after year. This year I started some narrow-leaf milkweed from seed. They are in pots, only a few inches high. My plan is to replace all the tropical with the narrow leaf or other native milkweed because of the concern that tropical milkweed is infecting monarchs with ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE). Presently I see lots of adult monarchs flying around my yard and landing on the milkweed but so far I see no cats and my plants are uneaten. Other years my milkweed has been munched down to the stalk, but I never took note of when that happened. So I'm wondering if it's still early in the season for this to happen or if something else is going on. I plan to cut all my tropical down to the ground at the end of the summer to prevent the overwintering of OE. What are others seeing in their yards now? I'm in zone 11a/10b