Milkweed

[Tucson Grower]

I've often endeavored to grow milkweed, wherever I've lived. Primarily to watch the Monarch butterfly life-cycle, which always fascinated me. It seems that wherever milkweed is planted outside, Monarch's are sure to find it. Here in Marana, and now Tucson I've learned of another butterfly, the Queen, which is related to the Monarch and also uses Milkweed as host plant for its larva.

I'm newly refreshing my milkweed plantings, and find it interesting that a unique source of several uncommon milkweed species, is located there in Oklahoma, just North of Springfield, in a town called, Stillwater.

[heavyhitterokra]

Tucson,

Have you read chrysanthemum's caterpillar nursery thread under 'Wildlife' over in the 'Extras' category? Sounds like you guys have similar interests, you'd probably enjoy that. Here's a link: seedsavingnetwork.proboards.com/thread/565/caterpillar-nurseries?page=1

I love reading her stories. I've only ever raised one cacoon successfully to hatch as a butterfly in my life. I'll never stop being amazed at that process.

[chrysanthemum]

We have Queens in our area, too. They are just as beautiful as Monarchs in their own way.

We have a native Milkweed that is known as Antelope Horns that grows on our property. It’s Asclepias Asperula.  We don’t have a lot, but we’re careful to protect it whenever we have occasional to trim weeds as we want it to flower and seed. Here’s a photo from when I first discovered it and Monarch caterpillars on our land.




I tried the first spring we were in Texas to establish the more common butterfly weed (asclepias tuberosa) here but did not have success.  I didn’t start with the strongest plants, and I didn’t realize that first spring that armadillos would dig where I watered or that deer would apparently eat milkweed.  (If they didn’t eat it, they still pulled it up and took it away.). None of my small plants survived, and I’ve not tried again now that I have more Texas gardening experience.  I’ve been focusing more on vegetables and trees.  I am grateful for the native milkweed around, though.  I love seeing the Monarchs and Queens.

One plant that I’ve seen in the area that isn’t a host for Queens but attracts them by droves as a nectar plant is called Gregg’s Blue Mistflower.  Have you ever seen that in Arizona?

www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=cogr10

[Tucson Grower]

crysanthemum, your photo link isn't working.

I've tried several milkweed, especially that are native. Apparently they need an environment that would be an unusual micro-climate, here. So I'm going to need to try to provide it. So far I haven't seen, the flower you mentioned, but it sure sounds like something I'll need to try. Our local Sonoran desert museum has info about it at their website.

A popular bar soap, Irish Spring can help keep unwanted critters away from gardens and plants. I potato peel the bars into thin slices, then pop it into the freezer for about 20 minutes. While it's still cold I tap it with a piece of 2x4, breaking it into small pieces. If you sprinkle some around the plants/area you want to protect - it can help repel them. It's not 100%, but it helps.

[chrysanthemum]

I edited the post above, and I think I got the photo inserted properly this time. If you make it big, you might be able to see the Monarch caterpillar on the ground. I hadn’t noticed it, but I took the photo to help me with plant identification, and I saw the caterpillar in it. When I went back out, it was still on the ground, and it was near a fire ant nest. That was the first Monarch I raised in Texas. You’ll notice that the Antelope Horns are very different looking from what people normally think of as milkweed.

Bon, I’ve actually never tried catching seeds from the Antelope Horns. I haven’t had great success with wildflowers, and I want as many as possible to germinate on our property and on the nearby roadsides. Someday I might try, but I’d need to do some research first.

[Tucson Grower]

chrysanthemum, I did get to see your pic, then it was gone, again. Very nice milkweed and caterpillar. That milkweed is one of the species I am trying to grow, from seeing yours, it looks like it could be nice, if I can get it to grow, here. I really liked one species I grew before, but can't remember its name. It had small, fir needle-like leaves, but though it was no more than 8 inches tall, it was very bushy. My favorite thing about it was that wherever I sat its pot, the roots would grow into the ground, then immediately they would sprout plants, which would grow quickly. All I needed to do to plant it, wherever, was to keep moving its pot around.

Here's another attempt to post a pic of a male Queen butterfly >