JUST Common Milkweed?
July 2, 2010 by Becky
Filed under Customer FAQ's, Species and Product Overview, What's blooming?
Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is blooming now. Many people consider this native plant a weed and we have been asked by a few why we sell the seed. The purpose of this blog is to remind folks that, amid the ever-shrinking population of native plants available to pollinators, this is a very important plant. The Milkweed flowers are needed by nectar-seeking insects, especially long- and short-tongued bees, wasps, flies, skippers, butterflies and even Sphinx moths. We all know the caterpillars of Monarch Butterflies need the foliage of this species; it is their only food source.
True, Common Milkweed is rhizomatous–meaning it will spread vegetatively by its roots. It will also successfully propagate itself by seed. Many of the stray or wild milkweed plants that appear in your garden unannounced are probably from an airborne seed finding its way into your soil. But Common Milkweed will not persist in a planting nor will it overwhelm other native plants as may Canada Goldenrod and, of course, the many non-native, invasive species that we warn you about.
There are native species we don’t carry because we consider them to be too aggressive; they persist and will overwhelm a planting. Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis), Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), and Riverbank or Wild Grape (Vitis riparis) are a few.
Here are some photos that we hope will get you excited about this plant again (as you once may have been as a child!):
The flower may not be this bright and attractive on all plants, but close examination of this common native plant reveals that the flowers are really beautiful! Have you ever smelled the Common Milkweed flower? It is very delicate and pleasing.
Everyone knows Milkweed species are host plants for the Monarch caterpillar. You probably also learned that the bright colors displayed by many of the insects that feed on Milkweed plants are to warn predators that the insects have been feeding on a “toxic” or unpalatable plant. Many animals (deer, rabbits, cattle) will not eat Asclepias species because of the bitter taste of the leaves – another reason for its success as a genus across the country.
Not everyone knows the benefits of Common Milkweed to Pollinators. Can you see this Bumblebee?
Here the flower is turning to the seedpod. You can distinguish Common Milkweed from other milkweeds by its prickly seedpods. Other Asclepias species have smooth pods.
I was happy to see that the city did not mow this large patch of Common Milkweed growing in a ditch along a busy highway.
I have a prairie planting that is in its 3rd summer. When I prepared the site, I kept the common milkweed patch (I *love* it!).
Unfortunately, although my seed mix didn’t include yarrow, my existing dirt *did*. Although many of the native plants are now growing (both grasses and forbs), the site is dominated by the pre-existing yarrow. Is there any way to manage it so that it will diminish? It is the first thing to come up in the spring and one of the last to go dormant in the fall.
(I also have lots of wild grape, but that’s in the woodland and is a question for another day.)
HI Charlotte! Thanks for the comment/question. Seems like the site had a heavy seed bank of Yarrow in it before you seeded. Yarrow should respond very well to herbicide treatments – doing some spot spraying if areas are thick enough and void of other natives you don’t want to kill. Or, you could put on the ‘glove of death’ – saturate your LEAK PROOF rubber glove with herbicide and ‘paint’ it on the plants. If you don’t want to go the herbicide route, you can always cut the Yarrow at the base before it has a chance to go to seed. A slower method of controlling it, but it should work in the long run. Good luck!
You need a few photos of milkweeds in the fall. I have some beautiful pictures of seedpods just starting to open in the fall. I also have pictures of my kids playing with the milkweeds in the fall. The air is filled with the seeds floating all around them. My kids collect a few monarch every year to raise and release as butterflies and we tagged over 200 last year for monarch watch. We have probably interacted with this plant more than most of our others.
Meg
Thanks for your write-up on the Common Milkweed. Would love to have it for the pollinators~~and I read that it attracts a phenomenol variety of butterflies.
But I always think of common mw as a full sun plant, but I have a yarden with some ‘part sun’ shaded by some tall ashes and other woodland plants. I do have asclepias incarnata growing there with some success. Do you think ‘common milkweed’ would thrive in such a habitat?
Thanks. J.
Hi Judy. Absolutely, the Common Milkweed will grow very well in partial shade. I see it all the time on woodland edges. If A. incarnata is doing well the A. syriaca will too! Thanks for reading our blog and for your comment!
I’m pretty happy to have found this site. Earlier today I ordered some butterfly weed. My wife has always liked this plant.
Welcome Jeff!
HI Meg. If you have any photos you would like to share, we are always happy to take a look at customer photos and give them photo credit on the website or in the catalog if we can use the photo! You can email them to me: rebecca@prairiemoon.com
My wife’s grandmother gave us Christmas tree ornaments made from the pods of common milkweed many years ago. They were treated with red velvet,trimmed with small beads on the edges and had a little figurine in the center. They are adored by everyone. Making these are a great way to engage kids into the natural world by integrating nature with art.
I’m putting a large wish list together and will be ordering soon. My question is whether I can expect to see blooms my first year on bare root plants that go in the ground in spring? I’m ordering swamp weed, butterfly bush, new jersey tea, buckbean, rose mallow, wild hyacinth, etc. I would assume that anything bare root is mature and will flower the first year. Am I right?
Hi Ken! You are right that our outdoor-grown bare root plants are more mature than greenhouse grown potted plants (bare roots are usually 1-2 yrs old whereas potted are ~4-6 months old) but that doesn’t necessarily mean they will flower the first year. It depends on a lot of things: the species, the weather, how late in the spring you transplant. As a general rule we tell customers to not expect flowers that first year mostly due to transplant shock the plant experiences. But, you could very well get blooms – we just don’t want to promise. I’ve gotten many bare roots myself from Prairie Moon – usually the ‘left overs’ and I don’t get them in the ground until early June and I would say I have had blooms that first year on about 50% of the plants. By the second year, they all had bloomed. From your list, my best guess (weather and transplant time depending) is that you are most likely to see blooms on the Swamp Milkweed and Butterfly Milkweed (I assume that is what you meant by swamp weed and butterfly bush). We planted the Wild Hyacinth and Blue-ridge Buckbean in front of our office building and they bloomed in the 2nd year. I hope this helps. Contact me directly if you have further questions.
-Becky
(rebecca@prairiemoon.com)