The short milkweed Asclepias tuberosa has become one of my new favorite native flowers for the flower garden. The groundhog munched it to the ground a couple of times, but once I planted a few other things around it, he seems to have lost the plant's location. They have been blooming and blooming through this nasty drought.
These were grown from some scrawny mail-order tubers which arrived this spring. The plants are about eight inches tall and I don't think they have the running growth habit of common milkweed. The only downside, oddly: the flowers don't seem to attract many insects. But perhaps I just haven't been around when the insects visit.
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The past two summers when it was so rainy, I was less than impressed with my butterfly weed --- a very disappointing little nothing of a plant. Then, this summer, in the dry dry conditions, it has exploded and bloomed in a clear orange all summer. Consistently dry conditions are the key for this lovely plant apparently!
I have had no kind of luck with butterfly weed--I want to! I try! I keep trying!--but it's so wet here that even my driest hillside is much too soggy for it. Alas!
Swamp milkweed, now...that stuff grows like gangbusters. I can make do, I just covet the butterfly weed.
Oh, reeaaaally? You two have given me an idea. That awful dry location I've got up by the mailbox might be perfect for these. Thanks!
Hi Michelle - I'm in Franklin! I am as grateful for the rain as my garden is. This unusually dry summer has me feeling unbalanced and out of whack, and certainly the landscape agrees. So let it rain! And when it stops, I will go check out my pot situation.
What is the minimum size you want? You can email me at 'mmott[at]comcast.net".
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