Pam and Susan, You both are making me blush. ;-) Seriously, thanks for saying such nice things. It made my day. I've just always believed in helping people, and of course I'm trying my best to help the butterflies. Pam, I don't know what to tell you about the V. bonariensis. Have you tried wintersowing? I guess when I planted mine several years ago, I hadn't been aware about it being hard to germinate. Actually, when I sowed my seeds, that was before I found out about wintersowing and I guess I sowed the seeds just like I had been sowing all my other seeds. I think I merely sowed them in potting soil in late winter and the plants came up. Since they are small seeds, I wouldn't plant them very deep, maybe just press them into the soil. I'd try various ways and see which works. I sure hope that you can get some to germinate because the butterflies sure do love those plants. Susan, Thank you and I think we're lucky to have you too. I've been reading here lately more than I've been typing. I do really enjoy seeing what other people are doing in their gardens, and I keep up with what you're doing. I remember your generosity to me and if there's anything I can do for you, I'd do whatever I can to help you. :-) I just looked at my profile because I didn't know exactly how long it has been since I joined here. It was in August of 2006. I started my butterfly garden the previous summer and it included several swamp milkweed plants that I had bought at a local nursery. I didn't get Monarchs that first year, maybe because it was so late in the summer when I got the garden underway, but I was thrilled in 2006 when I found some cats on the milkweed plants. I don't remember exactly when I first found the forum (reading but not yet posting). I guess I read enough here to pique my curiosity and to become interested enough to start a butterfly garden but didn't post right away. I suppose I felt an urgent need to post when I didn't know what I was doing when I found the first Monarch cat but didn't know the details of raising one. So I guess you could say that when I first found the forum I probably read just enough to become dangerous. lol Thank goodness that there are such nice people here like you, MissSherry, CalSherry/aka tdogmom, and others who didn't discourage my questions or I really would have felt beside myself. I suspect I'm not the only one who starts into a project only to feel like she got in over her head. Well, I think when I first started planting for the butterflies I didn't really have any intentions of raising caterpillars; however, then once I found some I felt the need to protect them. All of a sudden it became urgent to me that I not let anything get to the cats. If I had been told by people that I should go read first, I probably wouldn't have been able to save those first cats because till I had read enough to feel like I knew what I was doing, I'm sure it would have been too late for them and they'd have perished. Because of the generosity of you and others I've learned a lot and raised many cats over the past 4 years and have been trying to pay it forward ever since. Thanks so much for opening up another world for me and enabling me to help another part of nature, which I love so much (I've been into birding for 20+ years and have online birding friends too). I think my butterflying and birding friends are some of the nicest people that I've ever met. I really did get to meet many birding friends in person about 5 yr. ago when we were at a get-together in TN, but that's a whole other story. Yes, that would be too cool to celebrate people's birthdays and join dates. I noticed that your birthday is just 4 days before my husband's. Cathy

Hmmm...it is interesting to hear how some plants are doing well in one area and not another. Mine grows on the north side of my house in almost full shade. I never water it. It drops seed wherever and they come up wherever. At some point in the season, it starts to look stressed. The little ones I leave look healthier than the parent. Yet, this plant has been going for at least four years and is sending up shoots now. ericwi mentioned that they have soils with high clay content. We do too in SW Ohio. The soils are very alkaline. This milkweed is commonly found in our fens. I wonder if it doesn't prefer a more alkaline soil. Anybody out there growing it in very acidic soils? Or even an more neutral, high organic soil? -Elisabeth

I agree with Martha and Karen. Some natives do well with a pinching or pruning back. For example,joe pye weed will grow shorter and send up more flower heads. To my knowledge Milkweed is not one of them. In fact, I have several purple milkweeds that have never bloomed in three seasons because my hubby mowed them the last two. I grow a lot of Swamp milkweed in all kinds of sites. It is one of the easiest to grow if the conditions are right. It is a wetland plant, so it either requires a lot of water or grow it in shade and very organic soils. You shouldn't need to fertilize it. Again, it is a native and when you fertilize natives, they put a lot of energy into growing taller. I have about fifteen plants I put in this spring at a school garden (along with Sullivant's,tropical and butterfly weed). Of the four milkweeds, they are doing the best and look really healthy. They were grown from seed (started in April). Many of them are blooming right now, which suprised me. I expected them to bloom next year. They are all about 2 - 3 feet tall. My second year plants tend to be taller about four feet. They also only put up one to three shoots from the base after they are a second year. I never have a "bush" like you have there. Even in the wild, I will only see one to three stalks. So, I don't know how that is happening. Is yours from a garden center? Sometimes the cultivars at a garden center are selected for vigorous growth. I have yet to try one of the garden center cultivars. It would be interested in hearing how they differ from wild plants (all of mine are from wild collected seed). In addition, mine tend to decline after a couple years. So, I let the seedlings grow up and take over. Give it another year without pruning. You could always remove some of the side shoots to contain it. Mine never flops over. Again, that may be a function of rapid grown from fertilizer. The beauty of natives is not having to do anything to them! Thank goodness because I certainly neglect my garden at times! By the way there is a fascinating relationship between the different milkweeds and monarchs. We have discussed it in other posts. Some research and our experiences in this forum, lead us to believe that swamp milkweed is the preferential plant for monarchs. Glad to see you have some caterpillars. Cheers, Elisabeth

I'm new to raising butterflies this year and also new to growing milkweed. I ran out of tropical milkweed to feed my Monarch cats this summer and it really cost me a lot to round up food for them so want to be better prepared next year. :-) I purchased 80 starts of Swamp Milkweed late this summer and transplanted them into cups of potting soil. Some cups are 8 oz size styrofoam and some are 12 oz clear plastic (of course, with punched holes in bottoms of all cups). I currently have them sitting on my deck. We live in zone 7b, central Arkansas. I am wondering if I should keep them in a cool greenhouse until spring or leave them sitting on the deck through the winter months? The plant guide says they're hardy to zone 3a so I assume the roots can be frozen and still come back in the spring? In the greenhouse during sunny days of winter, I assume it will become quite warm during the day (first year with greenhouse, too) and I intend to always keep night temps above freezing so would those temps confuse the plants. Being perennial, are they expecting to be frozen during their dorment rest period? They currently don't have any leaves on them but did when I received them, just look like little sticks right now. I pulled one up and it didn't appear the roots have grown anymore from what they looked like when I planted it as a plug. I don't have a need for all of these plants but would like to keep the plugs alive to give away next spring. My thanks for your advice. Mary