Great Design Plant: Milkweed

Great Design Plant: Milkweed

One of the perennials to get in your garden is milkweed. I know that when most men and women hear the name, they cringe, grimace or turn up their nose, stating, “But isn’t that a weed?” No, not actually. And if it helps, we can call it wilkmeed. A magnet for insects, particularly butterflies and nonstinging bees, it is also a host plant for the monarch butterfly — a summer standby whose numbers are quickly dwindling as more farms and new home developments are constructed, and more chemicals are being sprayed. Not merely is milkweed a fantastic landscape plant by a design perspective, but it is also a hub for wildlife. A win-win!

Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Botanical name: Asclepias spp
Common names: Swamp milkweed, showy milkweed, Sullivant’s milkweed
USDA zones: 3 to 9, depending on species (find your zone)
Light requirement: Full sunlight to some shade
Mature size: 2 ft wide and 3 to 4 ft tall
advantages and tolerances: Spicy vanilla scent; attracts many butterflies; all varieties are somewhat adaptable to soil moisture
Seasonal attention: Plenty of midsummer blossoms followed by fall puffs of seeds
When to plant: Spring to midfall

Cultivars of swamp milkweed include this white-blooming ‘Ice Ballet’. The scent is irresistible to monarch butterflies and a lot of other winged insects, such as beetles, moths and flies.

Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Milkweed seed pods are a sight to behold in fall once the wind gets a hold of those. The pods dry, then crack, and dozens of seeds lift in the air like cotton. In fact, during World War II, milkweed fluff was utilized to fill pillows for GIs. And the milky sap can be applied to remove warts. Is there anything milkweed can not do? Try this plant from your garden and you won’t regret it.

Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata, sets 3 to 6). Here’s a closeup of swamp milkweed in bloom, with a bumblebee coming in for nectar. The flowers can be pollinated only if an insect slips a leg down into a particular spot of the bloom, which isn’t often. (You can use that piece of knowledge on your next date night once the conversation lags.)

Red swamp milkweed appears fantastic massed and grows in well-behaved clumps with mauve blossoms smelling like spicy vanilla. Contrary to its damp-sounding name, swamp milkweed can perform well in medium soil, preferring clay from anything wet to just slightly dry. It takes full sun or a bit of colour, averaging 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide.

Dig Your Garden Landscape Design

Common milkweed (Asclepias speciosa, zones 3 to 9). This is a moderate spreader in loamy soils (slower in clay) with different-colored flowers. The leaves are also wider and longer than swamp milkweed’s. This species likes dry to medium clay soil — perfect for your plains — and complete to partial shade. It reaches three feet tall.

Missouri Botanical Garden

Sullivant’s milkweed (Asclepias sullivantii, zones 3 to 7). It’s the more behaved cousin of speciosa. It forms slow-growing clumps in medium to damp soil (clay or loam), and has foliage and blossoms much like speciosa, using a height of 3 to 4 ft after a few decades.

Missouri Botanical Garden

Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa, sets 4 to 7). Here is another milkweed species, shorter than the others (2 feet by 2 feet). For me and area experts, it is not a beneficial plant for monarchs or alternative nectaring insects — it does tolerate dry along with other problem soils, yet.

Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Monarch butterflies lay eggs only on milkweed, and at my house their favored is swamp milkweed. Here are two full-grown caterpillars (about 2 inches) devouring a leaf.

Tip: If you would like to get your kids in the garden, planting butterfly host plants such as milkweed is a fantastic idea. You can watch the caterpillars double in size every few times (they are fully grown after two weeks), make them creep upward hands and arms, and learn to be a child again yourself. When the caterpillars develop, they venture off 20 ft or so, finding a quiet spot to develop into jade-colored chrysalises.

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The best way to utilize it. Milkweed can be massed in groups of three to four or implanted individually among other perennials. Its small footprint means it can go just about everywhere.

Planting notes. Many milkweeds are somewhat adaptable to dirt (swamp milkweed may rise in medium soils, not simply wet, and Sullivant’s may take it a little moist or a little dry, though it prefers moderate humidity). Any milkweed may be planted from early spring through October (mulch well in autumn to stop winter frost heave).

More plants to draw butterflies into the garden

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