I ordered two 'Ice Ballet' from Burpee Seeds in ealry april that are nice and tall, but no blooms just yet, I have had a few yellow aphids that I wiped off and a few lady bugs staying busy on them, so far so good. I am very pleased with my order from Prairie Nursery of 5 Red Swamp Milkweed, and 3 Liatris, they are still small but doing well. I would buy from them again. I also ordered seed for red milkweed from Prairie Nursery that I will winter sow. I also ordered 2 orange butterfly weed from Burpee, only one sprouted, and is still very small, too much shade I am afraid, if it ever blooms I will try to save some seed. So far, for my first year of milkweed, I am pleased with my purchases, I am just patiently waiting for some blooms.

WOW! Thanks for all of the great replies everyone! gardenspider - I posted my zone on this topic as DFW. I guess I assumed everyone knew that was Dallas/Fort Worth...lol. Thanks for the great info by the way! brandon7 - I was at HD yesterday and didn't see a thing. Perhaps I'll call around to a few in the area since they don't all stock the same things. Were they in the perennials section? nancy86 - If I don't find any this weekend, I'll get your email address and send you a SASE next week. Thanks for the great offer! Well, I picked up my tropical milkweed and am a bit disappointed in how it looks. It's got three tall (around 1.5-2' stalks) with just a few leaves on the very top portions. I expected it to be full all the way down, so not many leaves for the monarchs. Hopefully I can find some of the swamp milkweed at HD to add to this bed. By the way, I'm completely redoing this bed and could use some advice. Here is what I plan to plant: Ends - One end has a huge deep pink butterfly bush, the other end has a potted duranta (on the edge of my patio). Back - I plan to plant the milkweeds on one side and some summer phlox on the other (bought 2 of the John Fanick tonight). I also have one purple liatris that I'll put somewhere in the back or middle section. Middle section - so far I have two verbena bonariensis, two purple cone flowers and one black-eyed susan (will center that one since it's the only non-pink/purple in this bed) Front - deep pink (almost red) pentas and a few small other annuals to fill between. I have a hard time deciding where to put everything because almost everything is small right now, and since I've never planted these, I don't really know how they grow. I know I can always move them around later if I need to. Thanks again for all of the great advice!

Hello Milkweed folks, I will be posting the availability of the Asclepias variegata seed from ctnchpr later today on the new MILKWEED FORUM. I wanted to give folks on this thread a little advance notice before I post on the other forum. I have 24 packets of 25+ seeds each to distribute. These seed will be offered on a first-come-first-served basis. The viability looks like it will be low-hence the large number of seed in each packet. Please respond to my private email and NOT on this thread. Those that do use this thread will slip to the bottom of the list. My email address is : wildflowerman_2000@yahoo.com . Please put "Redring Milkweed" in the subject line. Those emails arriving with no subject line will be automatically deleted for security reasons. Happy Sowing!! Regards, Mark (wildflowerman_2000)

Thanks Mark, I feel a lot more hopeful now. And that's great that it's a repeat bloomer. I've been planting a few native grasses that skippers use as host plants. Some are 3 or 4 ft. tall. I think I've got enough tall ones. debarron, is it wetter in eastern Oklahoma like it is in eastern Texas? Is that the area you live in. For some reason I was thinking you lived in a dry place with sagebrushes growing near your house. Wish I could send you my Blue Flag Iris. She's not getting enough sun and moisture up here. I don't have any low spots that collect rain anywhere. Are you able to grow Bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes where you are? I'm so happy I was once in Texas when all those wildflowers were blooming. It puts Illinois to shame. Teasle and Poison Hemlock seem to be our most abundant roadside wildflowers. They have been spraying the Teasle (not very thuroughly) and leaving the Hemlock, which in time might overtake the teasle because it's taller. There are an awful lot of common milkweeds all over the place. And a few small colonies of A. sullivantii, but here you never see tuberosa or incarnata growing in the wild, only in gardens. All the other species that are supposed to be native to this area I've never seen. William, I was just reading that kn annual zones Calotropis gigantea grows faster than C. procera. I would like a really tall tree type plant so I'm planning on growing both. One for the size, and the other for its fragrance. Germination can be as long as 3 or 4 months, so I"m going to start the process 6 months before planting outdoors, because nice sized plants will give me a better chance of them getting tree-like.