I don't recognize the butterfly weed, but the plant next to the cleome looks like the smoking weed. Not sure though, need
a more closeup.

I assure you it is milkweed! I grew it from seed I collected myself. The cleome looks like marijuana though. Many people have noticed the resemblance.
Liz

Oh, those are the cleome leaves, couldn't tell, ha ha.
If the monarch does lay eggs on you butterfly weed, you
might have enough for 2 caterpillars to eat. They have
big appetites when they get large. It should not kill the
plants, because they come back up from the roots.

Is that for sure tuberosa? It looks more like incarnata or curassavica...

John

Well, I should see some flowers soon. That will clinch it!
Liz

What a great looking garden! Love the colors on the cleome.

I agree that the Asclepias might not be tuberosa--the leaves are quite different, almost needle-like. Here is a pic from my garden--it was the beginning of June, but you can get a sense of what the leaves look like. The plant just to the right of the Monarch lets you see the leaves; it gets taller, but the leaves basically look like that.

In your pic, it does look like some other kind--possibly A. incarnata though the leaves look a little more broad.

It'll be fun to see what the blooms bring like you said. :)

There's no way the is butterfly weed. Doesn't even remotely look right.

Looks like common milkweed to me.

I agree with slatewiper...it's not tuberosa. it's not common either.

To me, it looks most like incarnata (swamp) but the leaves seem thicker. Let us know when it flowers....

and when your "medicinal" marijuana is ready for purchase ;)

It looks more like swamp or tropical milkweed to me too. If you saw it in bloom the tropical can be yellow, orange, and red which is more likely to be confused with the similarly colored a. tuberosa.... than the white or pink flowers of swamp milkweed.

The cleome comments made me laugh too. One year I did a whole big bed of cleome with seeds from a seed swap. Before it flowered quite a few people thought I had gotten mislabeled pot and that I was going to get in trouble if anyone found it!

Okay guys, time for me to eat crow. Should've listened to those of you who were older and wiser. My "butterfly weed" is swamp milkweed, and my "swamp milkweed" is butterfly weed. Must've mixed up the jugs, or mislabeled them. Probably the latter.

The plants in the picture haven't opened their flowers yet, but they are starting to show a little pink. The other ones, however, are much smaller, with needle like leaves, and they opened their pretty orange flowers yesterday. I also have a few tropical milkweed plants popping up. I grew them last year and this year I got a few volunteers. I didn't bother to grow them again (on purpose) because they didn't attract any butterflies last year. Not only no monarchs, but nothing nectared on them either. They are pretty though.

Now for a little advice. The swamp milkweeds are doing fabulous where they are, but they really are a little big to be bordering the front walk. The butterfly weeds are in too damp and shady a location, so I would like to move them to a better spot. Can I transplant them now? It is pretty hot. Also, I understand they are Rooted and don't like to be moved very much.

I'd probably leave them be till dormancy if it were me. They've made it so far....

Plants are adaptable, and even though they don't like being moved...you can get away with it sometimes.

Here is the "butterfly weed."

And here is the "swamp milkweed."

Honestly, I feel a little foolish.
Liz

Yeah for the blooms! Don't worry about the misidentification--we all do it, and now you will always know what the seedlings look like. It's like how you have to kill a plant before you really understand it (an old saying)--you have to try to identify and make mistakes. No biggie.

What kind is the top Asclepias? Common?

No, that's the swamp (Incarnata) flowering in the bottom picture.

Just trying to clarify for everyone. I don't mean to sound like a know-it-all. The orange blossoms with narrow leaves is Asclepias tuberosa, often called Butterfly Weed. The other plant is in the Asclepias family, but I am not expert enough to make a definite ID. The leaves appear wider than my A. incarnata, and the budding blossoms are also a bit different. I wonder if someone over on the plant ID forum could help.

Martha

I agree the 1st picture doesn't quite line up with how my incarnata looks either--those leaves are usually thinner, and slightly glossy and not hairy, although this pic is also very close-up.

The second picture with the orange flowers is definitely A. tuberosa. I've attached a picture of one in my garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: A. tuberosa

The plant with the pinkish flowers was collected from wild plants growing at the edge of a pond in my town. I think the possibility of them being anything non-native, such as tropical, is zero. I visited that pond every week all summer long and saw the plants in bloom. There were a great many of them growing on the water's edge, all with rich pink flowers. There was also a lot of common milkweed growing there, but it had flowered much earlier and the flowers were dusty pink or mauve. The plants are also a lot of coarser.

The plant with the pinkish flowers was collected from wild plants growing at the edge of a pond in my town. I think the possibility of there being anything non-native, such as tropical, is zero. I visited that pond every week all summer long and saw the plants in bloom. There were a great many of them growing on the waters edge, all with rich pink flowers. There was also a lot of common milkweed growing there, but it had flowered much earlier and the flowers were dusty pink or mauve. The plants are also a lot of coarser.

Still, I was surprised just now when I looked up the information from the New Jersey Native Plant Society on the species of milkweed that grow in the state. Apparently, there are 11 native species of milkweed here-amplexicaulis (clasping), exaltata (poke), incarnata (swamp), lanceolata (fewflower), purpurascens (purple), rubra (red), syriaca (common), tuberosa (butterfly weed), variegata (redring), verticillata (whorled), and viridiflora (green comet). I had no idea! Now I will have to look up pictures on all of them. I have no doubt, however, that these are milkweeds. And the milkweed bugs think so too.

Martha-you are not a know it all. I am beginning to think maybe I am a know nothing! Or at least-"a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." I will wait and see what these look like when they have actually opened. Then I'll post another picture. And perhaps also on the plant ID forum. I also want to give you a public shout out of thanks for the gorgeous seeds you sent. The zinnias and tithonias are really beautiful. I just wish I had known how huge those Mexican sunflowers get. I would have spaced them further apart! At any rate, they are really beautiful. They are poking out through the fence, and the deer haven't even eaten them.
Liz

Hey Dr. Liz, chiming in late here but yes looks like the two species were mixed up in the containers. Just one of those not-uncommon wsing mishaps! If you want to move the plants I would wait until they start to die back in the fall and move carefully - A. incarnata is easy to move, A. tuberosa not so much. Smaller plants should do okay though.

I've got some A. incarnata plants from are from seeds I collected along the wetlands behind my rental house, the only place I've ever seen it growing in the wild around here. It has fat leaves like your plants. Unfortunately the deer or some dumb critter really likes those fat leaves, and have been chomping them down, while the 2 plants with skinnier leaves from another seed source are 3 feet tall and bushy

At least I have plenty of A. incarnata foliage this year to feed the 5 baby caterpillars (feeling very fortunate to have any Monarch activity this year).

Congrats, terrene! It seems a lot of people are reporting better monarch activitiy this summer. Those incarnata plants are unbelievably vigorous. I can't believe this is their first year from seed. They have branched and they're budding off the secondary branches. The largest plants have half a dozen bloom clusters-the main one at the top of the plant and sprouts from numerous axils with buds on them as well. I had planned to put these plants elsewhere, but they are doing so well I am reluctant to move them to another part of the garden. I may just move them back from the edge and face them down with something shorter.

Fortunately, the deer don't seem to be interested in them-at least not so far. They are in an unprotected location, not in the fenced in portion of my yard.
Liz

Yes,that last pict is a very clear example of tuberosa.

I have 5 tubers that have lived in my perennials bed for a while
Some of them are actually offshoots or seeds from the first one I
Planted.
I only see Monarchs once in a while when they drop down in
Here from the ridge.

They always nectar at the purple thistle blooms if available.

In your photos, the orange blossoming one is Tuberosa and the other is Syriaca.

There are so many types of 'butterfly weed' that sometimes it is better to ID by their botanical name.

I enjoy all of them and have a little collection of sorts... Incarnata, both white an pink (native here), Syriaca, Speciosa, Tuberosa, and Curassavica,

I know there are more, but I'm renting and have to hold back. :O)

Three beautiful photos.