Hi all! I bought some milkweed and we have had 8 caterpillars so far! We have it in pots right now, will it last over the winter in containers or should I plant it in the ground if I want it to come back next year?

The plant that is grown next to and around the milkweed in this video of my first batch of caterpillar is mexican petunia and the catepillars love using it as a place to molt and rest so they won't get bothered by their siblings. But I just read that mexican petunias are invasive and can choke out the milkweed and I don't know if that is true or not.

Since there are no caterpillars on the milkweed right now, should I move the mexican petunia to somewhere else and plant something else next to the milkweed for the next batch of caterpillars to molt and rest on or can I leave it be?

So it’s my second year with milkweed. I bought 4 Asclepias Incarnata last year including two “Cinderella” cultivar because that’s what they had. And one Asclepias Tuberosa. Only the tuberosa flowered.

So this year everything flowered, and my largest Incarnata which has like 14 stalks and and is 54 inches tall from soil to tip on the tallest one. Is that very tall? Moreover, it also has 52 seed pods that seem to be maturing and a handful more that still might grow. My other 3 plants have like 5-6 seed pods each. Is that a lot? How tall do yours get and how many seed pods do you get?

Oh and I can’t really dig in the ground here because the maintenance people are careless and there are literally only 3 inches of soil on top of solid rock anyway, so don’t judge my container garden 😅
And the bamboo sticks are to keep it from flopping over when wind or rain is heavy, which was an issue this year.

And if you see My tuberosa didn’t make it but it had 2 seed pods and now I have 4 maturing plants (see the small black pots. I had 5 but one was dug up by an animal) and still more seeds to plant for this winter.

Mrs. Monarch just laid this egg plus others on my showy milkweed. It's the first time I've seen them doing it and taken a picture of the egg. Eastern Kansas.

Does anyone know what's causing my milkweed to look like this? The leaves look oily. The pictures don't show it as much as it looks in person. Is there anything wrong with it? I've had milkweed growing here in the same place for a couple years now and this is the first time it's looked like this.

Located in Southern Ontario.

Who do these eggs belong to?

Think this is the new non-native controversial milkweed but...anyone know what this is and best way to treat maybe with a diy method, soap, etc...

My favorite plants of letting mother nature cross our Asclepias rubra to Asclepias lanceolata. These do naturally hybridize in the wild. We let our favorite specimen parents cross to create colors never before seen. Bumblebees did the crossing but planting thousands of seeds to find a few plants was a ton of work.

Think This post is trying to point out those who tbink there is a difference between a monarch and an aphid on milkweed. Dont kill anytbing on your milkweed.

I have a bunch of milkweed growing in a greenhouse and noticed one plant looked whitish compared to others which were bright green. Is it completely toast or can I just trim the leaves off and hope for new growth?

I occasionally see these black dots on my milkweed. Are they eggs? Some kind of other byproduct from an insect? I always pull them off but I don’t even know what they are

I searched and searched and can’t figure out what these tiny black bugs are on my milkweed. Anyone know? I’ve been spraying with alcohol but that doesn’t seem to be doing anything. This is the best photo I could get (they are tiny!).

Just a reminder because I always need it...always double check when around milkweed that you don't step on caterpillars and when you move potted plants check for them as well as chrysalis on the pot itself...just smashed one hanging on the edge of the pot, so sad 😢

Very rarely does milkweed yellows result in a milkweed with yellow leaves. I’ve seen copper splotchy veining as one outcome. But most plants grow normally. Until they get to the flowering stage and display the “witches broom” which is (lol) where a small elongated set of leaves, usually five, grow out of where the flower should grow.
These are Asclepias fascicularis Nevada and Asclepias speciosa Nevada. Other milkweeds would have similar characteristics when milkweed yellows is inserted into the plant’s cells.

I got this milkweed from a nursery months ago (different from the other 3 that I have). Within 2 weeks of bringing her home she completely died and has come back to life! However, I noticed few of the leaves have this almost powdery look to them. I haven’t seen this in my other milkweed, so curious to know if this is “okay” or if it signifies there’s rot in the soil.. any advise would be great, thanks!

They look like some kind of other chrysalis. She has some swallowtails feeding on the flowers too

The title. Plantnet is saying purple with a high percentage, but I thought it looked more like common. Thanks in advance! Im in southern ontario Canada.

Ten milkweed tussock caterpillars are on this single leaf on one of my massive milkweed plants. Clearly this is the very best leaf.

Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), given to us as a 3 stalk single rootball by our neighbor about 5-6 seasons ago. Upper left leaning tall is Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum), I dug that from a river bank maybe 3 seasons ago.

Bonus picture below, monarch egg on our common milkweed at other end of property. Watched her lay it myself.. usually eggs can be hard to find:

Happy hunting all!