Asclepias Species, Butterfly Milkweed, Butterfly Weed, Pleurisy Root

Sorry I can't find how to delete a post, but just found out that the plants I have are Asclepias Curassavica, not Asclepias Tuberosa.

I've had lots of luck with butterfly weed, growing in full sun in dry-mesic soil (sandy, drains fast). The plant is very happy and spread...Read Mores, but not invasively. Long bloom time and stunning color. The seed pods are just cool and I don't seem to have a problem with lots of unwanted seedlings, although I've manually planted them, and the ones I place all seem to come up. About the only negative thing is that the plant is a bit slow to emerge in the spring. Otherwise, a great plant that deserves to be planted more widely.

This plant is a 10 out of 10. I've started Asclepias tuberosa from seed the past few years and have had nothing but success from them. I ...Read Morehave 12+ now, and plan on at least doubling that number this year. They need dry to average soil, and a decent amount of sun. It seems to be a 50/50 chance on whether or not they'll bloom the first year. This plant is easy to keep control of. It doesn't spread underground the way other milkweeds do. The only way this plant spreads is by seed, and that can be easily maintained. The seedpods take about three months to fully develop, so you have plenty of time to cut them off if you choose to. You can also keep them on and collect the seeds when they ripen. This plant also has the brightest orange flowers I've ever seen, even on cloudy days. Even the foliage of this plant looks nice. If you plant a group of them, they'll form a bush-like clump that looks amazing when in bloom. I absolutely recommend this plant, especially for those in the Monarch Butterfly's range. I found 22 Monarch caterpillars on my plants last Summer. Note: you may likely see aphids take over, but they don't cause true harm to the plant.

Fyi I hope everybody plants some kind of milkweed in their garden for the butterflies, but I think some of the reviews here are confusing...Read More and may discourage a gardener. Some reviewers mistakenly refer to milkweed/asclepias varieties/species other than the A. tuberosa, such as A. Incarnata, another milkweed perennial in northern gardens and which can be successful in moist loamy gardens and pond sides (hence the name Swamp Milkweed) and comes in shades of pink and a white variety as well, or A. currasavica, the popular 'tropical' milkweed and entirely different and available in red, orange and yellow, that is easy to grow from seed or shoots and blooms the first year but in the north can not sustain winter weather. All of the above are host plants for monarchs and more readily found at garden centers (even big box stores) in recent years. Different milkweeds have different applications in the garden. The trick is, if you are planting your milkweed for butterflies, is to try to find plants untreated with chemicals. Or at least don't use chemicals (even soap) to get rid of tha aphids.

Asclepias tuberosa, the perennial milkweed we are focussing on here, likes drier conditions and typically will thrive in fairly poor soil given lots of sunshine. Its colors range from yellow through orange to an orangey red. I think of it as almost a succulant or a plant that would thrive where yarrow would grow. Companion perennials include coneflowers, liatris, salvia,

Just got it and love it but HOLY crap..the aphids! (they actually look really cool but I'm afraid they will destroy the plant)

I have grown milkweed from seed and
I just received 3 tubers of milkweed.
How deep should I plant them?

I grew these from seed several years ago. They are very easy to grow from seed. Here in zone 6 they are late to come about in spring, u...Read Moresually sometime in May. They take 2-3 years to become fully established and bloom profusely. But to me they have been worth the wait. I planted them in front of some heavenly blue morning glories that climb all the way up and over my roof each summer. The contrast of bright orange against the bright blue is stunning.
I was advised by a few experienced gardeners that this plant is, at some point, usually attacked and infested with aphids. You can leave them for the ladybugs to eat or wash them off with a soapy water mix. I tried to blast them off with just water and that did not work after several attempts.
I have the orange variety and it is doing fairly well as long as it stays in a dry area. It does not at all like being in constantly moist and especially wet areas.
I also use this as a cut flower. It lasts well and the bright orange blooms are very attractive.

The first time I saw this plant growing was in a protected area in the dunes on the south shore of western Long Island. They were growing...Read More in almost pure sand, in full sun, a huge stand of orange butterfly weed. I had never seen them before. I almost could not believe my eyes. They made a spectacular display and butterflies flocked to the area. Who would think you would find this less than 50 miles of New York City, growing wild?

I finally tried Asclepias tuberosa in my garden and while I have not a stand to compare with the one I saw in New York, I have a few come back every year. I save the seeds, and also make sure to leave some to self sow. Butterfly weed turned me on to milkweeds in the garden. I always loved milkweed as a child, and now I have several varieties, some wild some purchased. My most recent acquisition is a native swamp milkweed. Butterfly weed is one of the "more delicate" milkweeds. Its leaves seem finer and less coarse and it's stem more delicate. it really deserves to be in more gardens.

Milkweed is no longer a "weed" in my garden, it's a welcome perennial. It attracts bees and butterflies. It doesn't invade other beds and isn't taking over my lawn. I have nothing but good to say about it.

I have started A tuberosa from seed in the past, but it had died out in my garden several years ago, so this year I decided to try again....Read More Some seeds that I tossed onto an undrained flower tub and left under a snow bank, then allowed to drench in spring rain managed to germinate better than the ones I fussed over.

Makes a great cut flower.

Hardly a weed, this is a choice and very beautiful hardy perennial native to eastern and central...Read More North America. The flowers come in a vibrant range of colors ranging from yellow through orange to scarlet, though it's most commonly a yellow-orange. "Hello Yellow" is a reliable yellow-flowered seed strain. "Gay Butterflies" is a seed mix that's mostly orange with some yellow and, despite the misleading catalog photos, little if any red. "Red Butterflies" is a different species, the tender tropical Asclepias curassavica, and "pink butterfly weed" is Asclepias incarnata.

It can be found in the wild growing on acid soils and on limestone soils. Likewise, it can be found on sandy soils and on clay. The most common forms in cultivation strongly prefer sandy soils, but there are forms that do well on clay. (High Country Gardens offers one.) All perform best in full sun. Good drainage is necessary, dry soil is preferred once established.

To stress a point mentioned in other comments, it is very late to emerge from dormancy in the spring. A plant in a garden I tend appeared above ground on May 10 this year in Worcester, MA, at the cold end of Z6a. I recommend marking the location to keep from disturbing it when it's dormant.

It takes several years for this plant to attain its best performance---especially in length of bloom. As has been noted, mature plants can be made to rebloom by shearing the inflorescences as soon as bloom is finished.

Plants are taprooted and resent disturbance. Young plants transplant more easily than older ones. If you have to move one, it's best done in spring before it has much topgrowth.

Plants may occasionally self-sow lightly, but unlike common milkweed (A. syriaca) they don't spread underground. Easily propagated by seed with a three month cold moist dormancy, or by root cuttings.

bjrailey: Howdy neighbor! I'm also from Concrete and have the much shorter yellow form of this flower (it also comes in a taller 3 ft. ...Read Moreyellow form that is too tender for our area). Your post is dated March----way too early up here for these plants to poke their heads through the soil. It's at least late April in an early year, and last year it was into May. I just returned from the Nursery yesterday on the hunt for more of the short yellow variety and they said they won't have them ready until later June because of the slow start (they said that last year as well). They did have a lot of the orange and a few of the pink in 2 inch pots. I wanted the orange but was cautioned that they are prone to root rot in our winter rains and usually don't make it. So I got the pink which is "more hardy and less prone to root rot". Give it a little more time. My established yellows popped above the soil late April. I cut mine to the ground every fall. I'm trying to get them to reseed from the spent flowers, but have had only minor luck. My soil is sandy loam and some of the info states these flowers like soggy wet conditions. That'll never happen in my garden. The new pink will be a test this year. Good luck and happy gardening!

I planted two butterfly weeds (pardon the word weed) last year, one orange and one yellow. I am in zone 7b. I keep hearing be patient, ...Read More they are late to start. Any idea of how "late" they are? We had a terrible winter here this year and I am afraid between the cold and the wet I have lost them. Any idea?

Hi everybody! This is my first post. I need your help. At this time I have 2 of these plants and I just love them. I just need to know if...Read More I was supposed to cut down the plant for winter? It is almost Spring, and these poor babies look deader than a door nail! I have read all the comments, and most in my zone (8) say they come back, but no one mentions cutting what look to be dead limbs and trunk? If there is any one that can help me I sure would apprieciate it.

I live in Scottsdale, AZ, and although I see no other AZ entries, I can positively state that this plant has come to live in my yard on a...Read More volunteer basis, and I love it! It's doing great, and although I have several mature specimens, I also have babies now too. I am enjoying this plant immensely and haven't had to care for it at all to date.

This is a native to the dry clay of Conejo Valley near Los Angeles, CA.

I just wanted to note that this should do just fi...Read Morene in dry clay.

Also, I recently had the opportunity to watch a Monarch Butterfly lay its eggs on an A. tuberosa. It wasn't flowering, so I don't think the flowers are what attract fertile females.

They do look pretty scraggly when the stripey caterpillars have their way with the plants, but people usually buy the plants for the caterpillars, not the narrow, simple leaves.

I wanted to add a quick note; one user asked about the emergence of asclepias in the spring: Yes, it is VERY slow to emerge! I don't usu...Read Moreally see any sign of my plants until May, sometimes late in the month.
It might be helpful to mark it in some way so you don't accidentally dig into it in early spring before it emerges, especially in a mixed border or garden!

I am trying to support Monarchs ...
I have plot of asclepias that is now three years old, and I have yet to see a monarch butterf...Read Morely come near it. There never seem to be many monarchs in our area. This year I had a huge amount of flower heads about to bloom, but it seems that something has eaten them. There are no bugs on the plants but the flower heads look like they have been chewed off. It happened last year too. Will monarchs still be attracted to milkweed if they have no flowers? What could be eating them? I'm thinking possibly racoons or groundhogs are eating the flower heads. If so I will move them and fence them off next year, but could it be birds eating them? If so I give up....

Asclepias tuberosa is very important to butterflies. It is the larval food plant of Queen and Monarch butterflies. Hummingbirds and bees ...Read Moreare also attracted.

Butterfly Weed is a species of milkweed native to eastern North America. It is a perennial plant growing from 10 inches to 3 ft tall, with clustered orange or yellow flowers from early summer to early fall. This plant favors dry, sand or gravel soil, but has also been reported on stream margins. It requires full sun.

love this plant for the color of the flowers and the sturdiness of its structure. It blooms for a long time and needs no special care. It...Read More is somewhat drought tolerant and needs to be in well drained soil to thrive. the more sun you can give it, the better it will bloom. Aphids do seem to love it, but other than spraying them off with a hose, I dont do anything else, the aphids seldom do any major or permanent damage. Ive had monarchs lay eggs on this plant and had the pleasure of seeing them hatch into beautiful butterflies--that alone is worth growing them for.
keep in mind that these plants are quite late to emerge in the late spring. dont despair -- they dont come up until late may here, but make up for lost time very rapidly. Overall, I would have to classify these as being more useful in the wildflower or rustic garden than in formal beds and borders.

A friend gave me two pots with a couple of stalks of milkweed in each. They grew prolifically to a height of about 4.5 feet. But then the...Read More aphids struck. I didn't want the aphids spreading so I cut it all back to 4" stalks and then went on a two week vacation. When I got back yesterday, both are growing back well, but one is covered in aphids again. This time I looked through all the posts here and one of the readers provided two links. One with plants to grow that attract the predatory insects that will eat the aphids so that I like having aphids. Thank you to whomever shared that information.

I work in a garden center and a few years ago a client donated a Mexican Butterfly weed, Asclepias curassavica, from which I have sold pl...Read Moreants from its cuttings for the past three seasons. As for APHIDS which love this plant, I use a heavily diluted solution (10 to 1) of Seargent's tick and flea shampoo to control them. I'm sure any flea shampoo would work. I spray the day I first see them...they love the most tender parts of the plant (new growth which can be in several areas of the plant). My experience is that aphids congregate just below the blooms and on the underside of the leaves below the bloom. The small offshoots on the plant are also very tender and often have tiny leaves whose undersides are covered with aphids.
The next day after spraying, the golden colored aphids will be dead and black. I spray them off the plant for looks and to be able to monitor improvement. It takes about three weeks of treatment every time they show up but eventually they move on until the next time they appear.
The plant and the pollinators that frequent it are well worth the trouble.

I'm certainly not negative about butterfly milkweed! But it just won't grow in my clay soil. I've planted it (nursery plants) twice and...Read More it grew well but didn't return the next year. I'm now trying Asclepias incarnata which is supposed to be more clay-tolerant.

Does this plant roots enjoy less moisture or ?

Please let me know....
Barry

This is my third year with this plant from seed. I planted about 30 plants in 2010. In 2011 I got some very small plants and some floweri...Read Moreng. This year, all I can say is wow! The plants are huge and there are plenty of seedlings from last year's seeds. I was going to grow some more seed but after seeing how profusely it self seeds I decided there was no need. I can't wait to see them in bloom this year and hopefully I'll get some monarchs too.

I planted 4 of these last year, without knowing much about the plant. Only 1 came up, it was under a rose bush, & didn't get enough sun. ...Read MoreIt remained small, but I did get some beautiful orange blooms on it. I'm giving this a neutral rating, because it's spring, & I don't see any signs of any of the 8 Milkweed plants I planted last year. Are they slow to emerge, or did they die off?

There a number of comments about aphids on the milkweed plants. Milkweed plants are plagued by very yellow aphids at certain times of th...Read Moree year. There were recommendations to put ladybugs on the plants to control the aphids. While that will control the aphids, it is important to know that the ladybugs will also eat the monarch caterpillars when they first hatch. If your goal is to provide the milkweed for monarch caterpillar food don't use ladybugs. Instead just put on some gloves and wipe the aphids off. They are very soft and just squish. It's easy to tell the aphids from monarch eggs. Eggs are almost always on the underside of the leaves and are creamy white. Aphids are bright yellow, usually on the stems and you can see them moving.

From a sm. 3" pot planted early this spring in full sun, these lovely flowers have spread to several locations in my gardens. This fall t...Read Morehe are home to dozens of Monarch butterflies, but more importantly, the Monarch catepillars which I visit every morning. In prior years, Monarchs have zeroed in on my parsleys, eating them to the nub. I am thrilled at this butterfly host. Small small plants transplant quite easily, and I've gathered the seeds to share.

Asclepias tuberosa is also known as Tuberous Milkweed.
The large white tubers of this plant are edible.

3rd season in zone 5b, Salt air and tough exposure and lousy sandy soil and these plants love it. Might not get as tall here as some othe...Read Morer places but makes a lovely cutting for bouquets and fall interest. Easy to miss coming out of the ground initially...be careful how you rake early in the spring. I planted these in a (loose) triangular array of about 12 and they are striking in July and part of August

Love love love this plant. In my zone 7B (headed for 8 I'm afraid) NC garden, they are in full sun on a small slope. (A. incarnata gets...Read More the wetter spot.) I just moved last fall and the monarchs haven't found the new garden yet, but I'm sure they'll be along soon.

Yes, they get the bright yellow aphids, but those don't hurt anything so I leave them alone and pretend they're part of the show.

Great butterfly plant, with additional autumn interest with the seed pods. Sometimes nursery bought plants haven't survived for me, but ...Read Moregiven an ideal location and care during their first year, they will thrive.

Maybe this is not the place to ask . . when this plant returns, rather than seeding, can anyone tell me what the sprout looks like? I thi...Read Morenk I may have been pulling mine out thinking it was something else. Also, I put one into a place that I did not realize would stay very wet after rains. This trooper even thrived in this wet soil, contrary to everything I've read before!

I found this plant growing wild in our local area, and the striking orange-yellow flowers impressed me so much I waited until the seed po...Read Moreds matured and gathered seeds. The first attempt to plant them failed, since I had not stratified them with the cold they needed to sprout. Later success has yielded several dozens of plants on my 1.25 acre lot. It is gorgeous, and attracts monarchs by the dozen when in full bloom. I allow the butterflies to lay their eggs and do what they will with the plants, since monarchs do seem to be in decline recently.

If aphids attack in force, do a search for Ladybugs, and arrange situations that attract and hold them to your yard and garden area, We have a large Ladybug population locally, and when the aphids appear, so do the Ladybugs, who make short work of them, eating hundreds a day. You can buy dormant Ladybugs, but will need to provide an environment that will hold them in your yard. If you buy some, release them on a cool and cloudy day, since on warm days they will likely just fly away after release. Several of the tiny wasps predate aphids as well, and they can be purchased also.

Every year I get aphids on my tomato plants, but with a week or two the Ladybugs and wasps decimate them, and they are not a problem for the remainder of the season.

Monarchs lay their eggs on *milkweeds*, genus Asclepias, not on butterfly weed alone. Butterfly weed is one kind of milkweed.

...Read More/> Lovely flowers, too.

The sole plant I planted last early summer did well in the back yard--very leggy, kind spindly looking, got devoured by monarchs, hosted their chrysalises (sp?), regrew its leaves and flowers, and did the whole cycle few more times before the freezes we had in the winter (2010).

Gets full, hot sun all day, has no protection from north wind. Because I hadn't protected it during the freezes, I thought it was a goner. But now, in March 2011, it's flowering and leafing out. And four monarchs hovered around it yesterday, same for the butterfly bushes (Buddleia davidii) in the front yard (which stayed green during the winter & freezes, with no protection, planted near the street, east side) .

If you love Monarch Butterflies then you should know that their populations were estimated to have been cut in HALF in 2010 due to harsh ...Read MoreMexican winters, destruction of habitat, and pesticides! There are easier ways to control pests in the garden with plants like strongly scented marigolds or borage.The butterfly weed is native in CO and it's also the mainstay of the Monarch butterfly diet. Not only is it one of few plants the Monarch eats, but it's the ONLY plant that the monarch butterfly lays its eggs on. Wouldn't it be cool to see monarch caterpillars in your garden? I read a comment below about problems with aphids on these plants, I sure hope they weren't seeing butterfly eggs and mistakenly thought they were aphids. If they were indeed aphids here is a handy little website that teaches us how to attract beneficial insects with plants (like ladybugs that eat aphids by the hundreds).
http://www.grinningplanet.com/2005/04-26/beneficial-insect-n...

Also, here is an article about how to repel pests outright with naturally pest-repelling plants http://www.pallensmith.com/articles/pest-control-plants

12 more days until spring!

Planted this interesting plant from a seedling in the spring, especially drawn to it for the benefit of butterflies. As of today, two ti...Read Moremid, tiny branches - hoping that the info I read on " requires time to establish itself" holds true...

I hope this doesn't get double posted. I was editing another before this and it disappeared.
I rescued some orange milkweed from t...Read Morehe next yard when new owners were going to grass everything over. It thrived from the first day and 3 yrs later I divided it into 4 smaller clumps and transplanted them in 4 different places, two here in Dayton OH and two at my weekend home in St. Marys OH. They have thrived and bloomed all summer as before. I also have tall swamp milkweed that blooms pink and milkweed vine, which can be invasive, but I leave some for the Monarchs. This year some of the milkweed vine bloomed on a trellis with my sweet autumn clematis and they looked very nice together. I think the original orange clump was just so happy to be rescued that it rewarded me with its flowers, lol.
The aphids I get are very late in the season and I usually prune back the infested stems.

I love the plant for it's attraction to Monarchs. When we see a Monarch caterpillar on it, we wait until it grows a bit and then we put i...Read Moret in a small screen covered aquarium, feed it a lot of fresh leaves, clean the poop out (a lot for such little things!) and wait for it to coccoon and if your lucky, you'll get the chance to see it emerge. Fantastic to watch.

Yeah, the aphids love it but I try to hose off as many as possible.

I have 4 plants with about 25 seed pods on them. Several of the pods are cracking open now, with some of the seeds already sprouting in ...Read Morethe pod! Have never seen that before. Leaves & pods have some mildew (very dry summer, lots of rain the past couple weeks) (NY Long Is.) but seeds and sprouts are fine.

A very reliable perennial that has the added appeal of attracting butterflies.

The roots are tubers, and once they have m...Read Moreatured to carrot-size, they are very hardy and will regenerate easily if the plant is damaged.

The color and texture of the flowers is a bit strange which is why I no longer grow it: a true carrot-colored orange with fleshy petals... It just didn't seem to work with the grasses, sages, and daisies of the typical perennial garden.

This is my second year with the plant and the first season for blooms. The flowers were very nice, but I (like many others) have aphids a...Read Morere ALL over the plants.... it does not seem to be harming the plant (other than it looks at little gross). I was happy to see a few caterpillars too. I'm guessing when there are more caterpillars, the plant may look a little ragged.

I don't want to spray anything since I do have butterflies and caterpillars, and bees all over these plants. I think instead I will just change the location for this plant. When visitors are waiting at the front door, the aphid infested plants are in full view. I think the caterpillars will increase and so I will just have raggedy, aphid infested plants. Also the number of bees on the flowers does alarm some people. The bees don't bother me, but a couple of times I have opened the door to someone in a panic. :)

That said I am still keeping the plant, but I plan to sow the seeds from the in a place further away from my pathway. This way I can still view (and support) the butterflies, without the plant being all that visible.

In July I planted 3 in a new bed. I just noticed that 2 are infested with Oleander Aphids. Got to get out the Bug Blaster and work on this problem.

Butterfly Weed is one of my favorites and love it, but this year it sure looks like it is dead. Hopefully it will revive, but so far I a...Read Morem very disappointed.

This plant is very beautiful and is really beneficial to wildlife. It also blooms for a long time. However, I found out that rabbits see...Read Morem to really enjoy nibbling on this plant and aphids also like it as well. When I bought mine in August it was growing good until the rabbits and the aphids came along. I know think the plant is dead after all the abuse it suffered.I'll have to wait to spring to see if anything comes up.

I noticed a large patch had been mowed by the county when it was still blooming. Now, probably 6 weeks later, the plants are all up and b...Read Morelooming again! They managed this in all the weed and grass competition. I plan to cut mine back next year as others have mentioned here. This patch was mowed probably to 4 or 5" from the ground.

Becoming much more common on the urban roadside compare to 10 years ago. Seem willing to seed itself even in fully established grasses. L...Read Moreoves dry grassland condition with plenty of sun. Tough to get establishment for me - none had survived. The picture I submitted above is a larger than usual patch at the Minnesota Arboretum - on roadside they are usually smaller but very eye catching - the only orange flowers except for wild lilies (species unknown but may includes wood lilies and tiger lilies) and tawny daylilies in mid to late summer on roadsides. Even then, lilies tend to be more common in rural areas.

my sister had butterfly weed in her garden and i asked her to dig me up some. she told me that they do not transplant well. i bought se...Read Moreed packets from meijer and started them off using jiffy peat pellet greenhouse. they did well in the peat pellets but when i did transplant them into their new and permanent home, half of them died. very hard to transplant. start them off from seed where you want them to end up.

Bought my first plant from the Monarch Butterfly Garden in Elkton, Oregon. A fun place to visit if you love Monarch's.

I have three plants grown from seed, no blooms yet but the posts above give me faith that next year will be a showstopper. There are alre...Read Moready Monarchs fluttering by. The aphids don't hurt the plants a bit, but I hose them off when I do my weekly watering. I've planted a patch of dwarf tithonia cultivar close-by that's coming into bloom now (8/6, 7b), and am hoping to have a nice patch of Monarch-bait, and seeds to save for next year's crop.

Butterfly Weed Asclepias tuberosa is native to Texas and other States.

I wintersowed seeds last winter. Germination rate wasn't that high, but those that germinated grew to about 10 or 12 inches and bloomed i...Read Moren their first summer. Very pretty!

Karen

In my opinion, this the perfect plant. I'm never bored with it. It's beautiful with flowers that have a glowing quality. And it's attract...Read Moreive with the seed pods also.

It's a good drought resistant plant. You just kind of forget about it and it rewards you more than other flowers that you have to take care of.

I find that the monarchs will lay their eggs more on the soft leaved milkweeds rather than the tuberosa. Or maybe what's happening is the larvae are moving to the softer leaved milkweeds.

Like a previous post said, it really does come into it's own in it's third year! The plant's tripled in size and it's covered with flower buds.

Last year it was growing under some other plants and wasn't doing so well but after I cleared them away to give it full sun, it really picked up.

I am not a big fan of orange flowers in m garden but this is one of the few that I have to include. It is trouble free and reliable. Butt...Read Moreerflies really do love it. A must-have in butterfly gardens that are lacking in plants for caterpillars to feed on. Raised beds and sandy soil work great for me.

This is my favorite plant of the Asclepias family. It is really a nice height. I have read that it is hardy in zones 3-10. Light aids ...Read Moregermination of seeds. Blooms June-July in my garden. Very aphid prone!

I transplanted my asclepias tuberosa in August after 3 years in the wrong spot. I got as much of the tap root as I could. I cut it back...Read More by about 1/3. All the leaves fell off but it got new growth from the base and has a bloom on it. I have had trouble with aphids on my curassavica but none on my tuberosa until I moved it to the back with the curassavica. My curassavica got to about 6' in height and when it finished blooming, I cut it back to about 3 feet. It is blooming and again. Next year I will pinch it back to make it branch and cut it back after blooming. My lantana and butterfly weeds are the bright spot in my garden at this time of year.

I've found that transplanting 1 year old plants can be tricky with that tap root. I plant them in groups of 3 or 5 about a foot apart so...Read More loosing one is no problem.
For best results, transplant just as they emerge in spring.
Andy P

It self seeds easily. I started with one plant and now have about a dozen after one year. The seedlings can be transplanted without too...Read More much shock if you identify them early and move them to simailar growing conditions.

Last year was the first year I got flowers, but they were so covered with aphids that I couldn't tell the flowers from the aphids. I did ...Read Morenot spray with insecticide, but tried to control them with hard sprays from the garden hose. I will be patient and try one more year, but if it continues I will move it to the back of the yard where I won't see the aphids, just the color. UPDATE: I still have an aphid problem but this year my plant has been host to many Monarch butterfly caterpillars. Made all the hassle worthwhile!

Don't sweat the aphids, that's one of the great "uses" of this plant! It does attract aphids, but the aphids don't hurt the plant. In ret...Read Moreurn, the aphids stay off your roses and everything else, and they attract beneficials, such as ladybugs. Since I've had some of these in select areas of my rose bed, I've haven't seen even a hint of aphids on my roses!

They not only attract butterflies, especially Monarchs, they are the larval food of the Monarch butterfly - so leave those beautiful caterpillars be!

If you don't want them to re-seed, simply cut off the seed pod before it opens. My experience has been that the seedlings are easy enough to pull if they aren't where you want them to be.

I really love the flowers, so this plant is a hard "worker" in my garden - great looks, easy care, bug control, and butterfly nursery/attractant!

I was surprised how very easy it was to raise the cultivar 'Red Butterflies' from seed.
Each plant flowered and I got the bonus o...Read Moref seeing my first Monarch catepillar up close and personal. They completely ingested that one plant but I had several others for my viewing pleasure.
It makes me happy to know I am doing my part to continue the cycle of life - especially since the SOLE food source of the Monarch catepillar is milkweed. And urbanization is starting to deplete that wild food source.
A beautiful and exciting plant!

Try planting this plant with Tithonia rotundifolia (a perennial often grown as an annual that self sows) as A. tuberosa provides food for...Read More the larval stage of Monarchs, but Tithonia, or Mexican Sunflower, provides nectar for the adults, and Tithonia's spectacular orange-red flowers attract the Monarchs to your garden in the first place.

I recently saw the two plants growing together in a lovely garden in Gainesville, Florida, and the plants were covered with butterflies. Their orange/yellow flowers go well together, and the usually taller Tithonia, to about six feet, looked nice behind the shorter Butterfly weed. There are also shorter cultivars of Tithonia that would look good mixed with the Butterfly Weed. And I think if they were planted all mixed together, the uneaten foliage of the Tithonia would somewhat hide the unsightly eaten-down foliage of the Butterfly Weed once the Monarch caterpillars had finished with it.

As for the orange colored aphids, a good spray with the hose, or just wiping them off with some damp paper towels, will do a lot to diminish their numbers. They never seem to actually harm the plants, but I don't like to see them in my garden either, so I try to get rid of them, rather than get rid of the plants.

If you really feel the need to control the aphids, and your planting is too big to use mechanical control, use one of the oil or soap spr...Read Moreays. These are non-toxic and kill by covering the aphids breathing holes. It's easy enough to avoid spraying the caterpillars. In my garden, the monarch larvae seem to keep the plants stripped most of the time (no matter how much I plant), so the aphids don't have much of a chance to do damage.

Butterfly Weed is very prone to yellow oleander aphids - it pretty much comes with the territory. Some farmers use milk weed to draw aph...Read Moreids away from their crops. You can't spray insecticide or you will defeat the purpose of the milkweed - to raise Monarchs (among others.) I simply use a tissue and wipe them off from time to time, but they really don't hurt the plant or the caterpillars that I've found.

This is the first year I've had a butterfly garden, and I've raised 4 generations of Monarchs off of it this summer! A couple of weeks after one batch of caterpillars was gone, another would appear - always in groups. Make sure you get your seed pods EARLY in the year - my plants never bloomed again after June because they were constantly being eaten up - but I didn't mind because I loved watching the butterflies!

I planted Mexican Sunflower in with the milkweed to draw the adults to the area - it was a huge success! If you want Monarchs, you have to have milkweed and you have to let them eat it!

I live in Maryland and am thinking about giving this a try.

I love this plant, as do the butterflies and bees. It grows easily in my garden with absolutely no "help" from me. That's a great plant...Read More in my opinion!

I love Butterfly Weed, but they are hard to dig out - I had them growing all over the place. This year I have most of them in pots. I'm...Read More trying the yellow variety this year and so far no insect problems.

Vigorous growth, beautiful next to gentian sage, but just could not keep the aphids off it! Every three days they were back again no matt...Read Moreer what I used. Finally uprooted it and tossed it out. My garden consists of numerous small beds, many different individual plants together -- this has been the only plant suffering such heavy insect infestation.

Butterfly Weed takes three years to really flower but after that they're really dependable. The seed pods have small flat seeds with silk...Read More on one end used to scatter them. These plants come up late in spring; mark them so you don't dig them up! Cutting them back about six inches after the first bloom finishes will cause them to flower again. I did have a problem with Aphids a couple years back. I just sprayed them off with the garden hose.

Butterfly Weed is a perennial wildflower. It is hardy to USDA Zone 3. The plant will grow to 2 to 3 feet in height and 15 to 24 inches wi...Read Morede.

It thrives in light, sandy, well drained soil with full sun. It requires little fertilizer. Butterfly Weed lives up to its name, attracting monarchs and other butterflies.