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Planting, Growing, and Caring for Milkweed
Milkweed is a native wildflower beloved by monarch butterflies. There are a number of popular species suited for cultivation in the garden. Here’s how to plant, grow, and care for milkweed in your garden—and support butterflies!
About Milkweed
Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is the best known species of the over 100 perennial milkweed species native to North America. Milkweed plants support 12 species of butterflies and moths, including the Monarch butterfly.
The nectar in all milkweed flowers provides valuable food for butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. Butterflies don’t only need nectar, but also need food at the caterpillar stage. The leaves of milkweed plants are the only food that monarch caterpillars can eat. And monarch butterflies also need the milkweed plant to lay their eggs on.
How to Grow Milkweed
- Water plants if soil is dry, but avoid overwatering.
- Plants generally do not need supplemental fertilization.
- Avoid using insecticides/herbicides in areas around milkweed.
- Plants may not bloom the first year, but leaves will still provide a food source for butterfly caterpillars.
- The genus name, Asclepias, commemorates Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine.
- Native Americans taught early European settlers how to cook milkweed so that it could be safely eaten.
- The milky white sap was applied topically to remove warts, and the roots were chewed to cure dysentery.
- Infusions of the roots and leaves were taken to suppress coughs and used to treat typhus fever and asthma.
- The stems’ tough, stringy fibers were twisted into strong twine and rope, or woven into coarse fabric.
- Inside milkweed’s seed pods is fluffy white floss attached to brown seeds. The floss was used to stuff pillows, mattresses, and quilts, and was carried as tinder to start fires.
- During World War II, the regular material used to stuff life jackets was in short supply, so milkweed floss was used as a substitute—it is about six times more buoyant than cork.
- See more uses and natural remedies for milkweed.
Catherine Boeckmann
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I had a few "freebie" common milkweed plants pop up in my small round swamp milkweed garden this spring. So I let them grow. (all for the love of Monarchs, right?) Anyhoo, boy did they grow. They're way taller than me now! When in bloom they attracted bumblebees, honeybees, butterflies, etc. However, to my dismay, I noticed honeybees dead (quite a few of them) on the flowerheads. I KNEW they were not subjected to any poisons so I reached out to my local conservation dept. I was told that it is quite common for the honeybee's feet to become trapped in the flower. They cannot get their feet out, then starve to death! I thought OMG, how horrible! I will be taking out/perhaps transplanting the common milkweeds elsewhere (somewhere that I cannot see the dead honeybees next season) because not only does it break my heart to see them dead on the flowerheads, the common milkweed has pretty much shaded and took over my small pollinator garden. The conservation dept. told me that this does not contribute to the honeybee's decline, but it sure is upsetting to see the dead bees!
I planted some common milkweed in my flower beds. YIKES. I didn't know they were so invasive. I do not want them in my flower bed because the roots spread underground and they pop up every where. I dug up alot of them last year, bur they keep popping up everywhere in my flower bed. HOW I do I get them completely out of my flower beds?
We put a milkweed plant in our flowerbed for the first time this year. The branches to the plant are bowing out a lot. I am wondering if I should bring them back in toward the center stem with some twine and use a dowel rod to stabilize it?
Thank you!
I have had to stake ALL of my milkweeds. Common and swamp both.
Hi Teri-
The milkweed will be healthy if it bows, but if you prefer to have it upright, please go ahead and stake it.
Thanks!
Unfortunately, I planted a milkweed in a small bed next to my porch. It is too large and I want to move it out to my creek bed, the ideal place to grow as large as it can. How do I transplant a full-grown plant? And the leaves are mottled brown instead of a nice green color - what do I treat with to restore plant to good health?
Carefully dig around the base of the plant, starting 7-8 inches out from the stems. You’ll want to capture as much of the root ball as possible, so dig carefully. Once you’ve loosened the plant, carefully lift it, retaining as much of the root ball and soil as you can. Plant it in its new home and water well. If rains are infrequent, be sure to keep the plant watered until hard frosts set in.
It’s possible that the browned leaves are simply a symptom of drought or the end of the growing season, so just keep an eye on it when it pops up in the spring to see if the foliage looks as it should.
I pick some milkweed pods from a friends pond area, back around Labor Day. Allowed them to dry out & separated from the silk. I live in Pa zone 6b, is it safe to plant the seeds at this time?
I've planted seeds in the fall & they come up earlier in the spring than if I wanted until spring to plant.
I grew several milkweed plants from seeds last year. This year they came back and brought several monarchs to my garden. I live in MA. Yesterday I discovered several monarch caterpillars. I love the orange butterfly weed and plan to plant more next year. They were easy to grow and beautiful addition to my garden.
