Showy Milkweed (Asclepias speciosa)

BEAUTIFUL

It's GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thought it was an apple blossom at first glance, Natalie. Lovely!

right on! I love to see milkweed get some banner time
Nice job Natalie

Such a nice banner, Natalie!

Thanks so much for the thumbs and acorns! This is one of my favorite flowers, and grows wild on my property. I really love it! Hopefully I can get more of it to grow around here!

We had a Buckeye caterpillar for two days on the banner, and now we've got milkweed. Let's raise awareness of butterfly gardening, folks! And then come join us in the forum. We're really nice, I promise!

Also, Monarch Watch is growing flats of milkweed to sell later this year. They've been posting pictures of the seeds germinating and coming up on Facebook. This is one of the species they were posting. Love having it featured on the banner!

Melanie, I gathered some seeds from this one, but haven't tried growing them yet. Not sure how to do it, but I'll give it a try. I did leave some seeds to spread though. I sure would have loved to have seen a Monarch on them!

Natalie, I bought some native milkweed seeds from Everwilde Farms earlier this year. They are currently cold stratifying in my fridge. They also sell Showy Milkweed and here is the page which has helpful tips on germinating and growing them It also has a map for people who want to see where they are native to. Not Florida, which is why I chose other species! http://www.everwilde.com/store...

Thanks Melanie. These are growing wild all over the place here, and it is such a beautiful sight when they are blooming! I'll check that site out shortly!

Awesome! I hope many Monarchs come your way this year. Be sure and pet a caterpillar for me!

I've only lived here two years, but I haven't seen a Monarch yet. I even ride the ATV up and down the road to check out all the other milkweeds that are growing, and haven't seen anything. But, I'll keep looking, and if I ever see a caterpillar, it will get a pet from from both of us! If nothing else, the bees seem to like the flowers, so it is worth it just for that.

I have faith that they'll find your plants, eventually! And it will be super exciting and you can take pictures and show us over in the butterfly thread. But helping the bees is super important, as well!

I have some Asclepias incarnata seeds in the fridge now. These are ones that are native to Fl.:
http://www.everwilde.com/store...

Also, I recently read a tip for harvesting milkweed seeds or rather making sure you can harvest them. When the pods begin to get ripe but are not quite "there" yet, wrap a rubber band around the pod so it doesn't split open & release the seeds when you aren't there to catch it. Then when you check & see it trying to split open you can pluck the pod & take it to a safe location for extraction of the seeds.

I bought Spider milkweed and Whorled milkweed from Everwilde. I don't have a wet enough site for A. incarnata. That's one bad thing about Florida's native milkweeds. About half of them grow in wetlands. It can be hard to find ones for us folks who chose to not build our house on swampland.

but I think I have an area that is moist enough for them. I'm going to try it anyway. I looked & looked & looked for the whorled milkweed seeds but either couldn't find any or they were sold out. Didn't know about Everwilde then & it's too late now for this year so I will have to do it next year.

Ann, thanks for that tip. I spent the last two years driving the ATV up the driveway and checking them, several times a day! This will save some wear on the tires!

And when I read it I did one of those palm slaps to forehead numbers.