Item Tag: All Climates

Butterfly Milkweed COMMON Pink Asclepias Perennial Monarch Host Plant 50 SeedsMother Nature’s SeedsCold Stratify your seeds or plant in Fall after last frost!100% Pure Seed – Non-GMO – Fresh for this Season Milkweed, Common(Asclepias syriaca)Tags: Butterfly, Meadow Gardening, Milkweed (Asclepias species), Pollinator, U.S. NativeCommon Milkweed has pink flowers and grows to four feet tall. It is native to the Midwest and eastern U.S. It prefers full sun and loamy, mesic soil, but it can tolerate a wide variety of conditions. This species can spread aggressively in moister sites and is most appropriate for butterfly habitat gardens, conservation and meadow plantings FAST FACTSSCIENTIFIC NAME: Asclepias syriacaCOLOR(S): PinkSEED TYPE: PerennialSUN: Full Sun, Partial ShadeMOISTURE: Dry, ModerateHEIGHT (IN.): 36-48BLOOM PERIOD: SummerUSDA HARDINESS ZONE(S)4-9. ADVANTAGES OF THIS FLOWER Zones 4 – 10 Easy To Grow Bee Friendly Deer Resistant Low Maintenance Multiple Blooms / Rebloomer Extended Bloom Time (more than 4 weeks) Plants For Small Spaces Great For Mass Plantings Light Requirements Full Sun Half Sun / Half Shade Bloom Time: Spring and Summer HOW TO GROW MILKWEEDWhen & Where To Plant MilkweedLight: Young Milkweed plants need plenty of diffuse light as they grow. Plant in full sun locations.Soil: There is a Milkweed variety for every landscape.Common Milkweed grows well in average garden soil. Swamp Milkweed, as its name implies, will do best in a moist environment, making it great for wet meadows or rain gardens. Tropical Milkweed performs beautifully in hot, humid conditions, and can be grown as an annual in the north. Butterfly Weed and Whorled Milkweed grows best in dry conditions.Spacing: Milkweed establish large, deep root systems and prefer not to be transplanted.Butterfly Weed, Whorled Milkweed, and Common Milkweed should all be spaced about 18” apart. Swamp Milkweed eventually matures to forms clumps up to 36″ across. You can plant them closer and then thin the plants as they grow in, or, plant Swamp Milkweed and its cultivars between 30” and 36” apart.Planting Time: Milkweed plants can be planted in spring or fall. In spring, your milkweed plants will likely arrive in a dormant state, with no green leaves above the soil line. This is perfectly normal! At this stage in your milkweed’s growth, all of the energy is being focused on developing a strong root system. After you plant your milkweed, you should see it ‘wake up’ as the soil warms and should begin to see leaves form – often, milkweed can be slow to wake up from dormancy compared to other perennials in your garden. Be sure not to overwater while they are dormant.Fall planting in fall gives your plants a chance to establish themselves before winter. In areas with cold winters, this perennial plant will return in late spring.Growing Milkweed From Seed: To start milkweed from seed, the easiest way is to emulate Mother Nature and plant them in the fall. If you really want to start your seeds in the spring, first you must break their dormancy with cold stratification, which we cover in our guide for starting milkweed from seed.Learn More: How To Germinate and Grow Milkweed Seeds.How To Plant Milkweed: Step-By-Step InstructionsStart with healthy plants that have developed root systems.Prepare a planting hole that’s twice as deep and twize as wide as the root ball of your milkweed plant. When planting multiple plants, you can amend the soil for each planting hole, or amend the whole bed before planting. If the roots are clinging to the sides of the pot, you can “rough up” the roots to encourage outward growth. Plant your lmilkweed with the top of the root ball even with the soil line. Backfill soil around the plant and press firmly all around. Water well to compress the soil and remove an air pockets. How To Care For Milkweed PlantsGrowth habit: Most milkweed species are clump-forming. Common Milkweed is a single stemmed variety.Staking: Milkweed plants have sturdy stems – no staking needed.Watering: Swamp Milkweed varieties need either a naturally moist environment or regular watering. Whorled and Common Milkweeds, as well as Butterfly Weed, are suited to a dry environment.Fertilizing: Milkweed does not require fertilization. This native plant performs well in poor soils.Mulching: You may mulch milkweed with leaf litter or fine-chopped bark mulch if you’re trying to control weeds. Dry-soil loving milkweeds, like Butterfly Weed, may not appreciate the water retaining qualities of mulch.Trimming & Pruning: None needed.Monarchs & MilkweedThe leaves of all milkweed species are the host plant for the caterpillars of beautiful American monarch butterflies – meaning milkweed leaves are the ONLY food that they can eat to survive. However, because of widespread pesticide use and the destruction of meadows across the country, wild-growing milkweeds are disappearing in places where these butterflies breed. This has led to a nearly 90% decline in monarch populations over the last 2 decades! Looking ahead, if we don’t replenish these lost milkweeds, Monarch butterflies will vanish from the American landscape forever. Fortunately, you can plant milkweed to help support your local monarch butterfly and pollinator population! HOW TO COLD STRATIFY SEEDSEveryone wants plants. Now. But there are a small group of seeds that require a special treatment before they will even germinate in a climate that has temperatures below freezing. This process is called “Cold Stratification.” There are two ways to accomplish this.Fall PlantingIf time is not a problem, you can put them in the ground in fall and let them go through a winter. They will sprout next year, but not flower. The following year, having gone through two winters, they will return and bloom as expected.If you are planting poppies direct sowing is recommended in late fall or early spring for zones 2-8Create a “False Winter”The second way to do this, if you want to save time, is to create a “false winter.” What this does is trick the seeds into thinking they have been in the ground for an entire year. All they need is to be in your refrigerator for at least 2 ½ months.About 3 months before spring, place seeds in a plastic bag with a handful of slightly dampened, clean peat, paper towel, or a mix of clean peat and sand.Seal and label the bag with seed name and date, then store in the refrigerator (not freezer) for at least 2½ mos. before planting in spring. (The cold period mimics a full winter’s cold.) Once your seed has been treated, it’s ready to plant when spring arrives.Varieties that need Cold Stratification:, Angelica Seeds, Asclepias Seeds, Asparagus Seeds, Canterbury Bells Seeds, Caper Seeds, Chinese Lantern Seeds, Cleome Seeds, Columbine Seeds, Coneflower Seeds, Floxglove Seeds, Lavender Seeds, Lemon Mint Seeds, Lobelia Seeds, Marshmallow Seeds, New England Aster Seeds, Oregano Seeds, Perennial Flax Seeds, Perilla (Shiso) Seeds, Poppy Seeds, Primrose Seeds, Rocky Mountain Penstemon Seeds, Scarlet Sage Seeds, St. Johns Wort Seeds, Wallflower Seeds, Wild Blue Iris Seeds, Yarrow Seeds, Customer Service Your success and happiness is our success and happiness! Please don’t leave a neutral or negative feedback without contacting us. If you have a problem we will make it right. Positive Feedback is very important to the future of our business and ability to continue to sell to you throughout the years so when you get your seeds PLEASE leave us a positive feedback, we do for you! If you need planting instructions other than what is shown above either message us or go to our website for instructions. Fast and Free Shipping Your orders ship the next business date after payment via US mail NO TRACKING regular mail. You can add tracking for $3.50 (see shipping) Orders over $10 are shipped in a padded envelope with a gift pack of 50+ Wildflower Seeds. Orders over $25 are shipped First Class PACKAGE with TRACKING and a double gift pack of over 100 Wildflower Seeds! Postal Service Please note that on Holidays the post office gets backed up so your orders might take a little longer. Please don’t worry about your order getting to you until at least 10 working days then message me directly. 99% of orders are receved within 2 to 4 days!