Hey Cathy! I ran out of milkweed this year too. I had wintersowed quite a bit. Nothing that was planted in the ground at Rachel's made it because she didn't water it. So, I was left with a few Common MW plants and about 25 potted Tropical MW plants. Oh, and there is also a bit of Butterfly Weed in the yard. My potted Tropical MW has releafed and is beginning to bloom now. I am going to try to overwinter the pots in the garage and see how that works out. I did buy some Purple MW seed and will try my hand at growing some of that too. I don't think it gets too large the first year though, does it?

Angie, I guess by going through these things we learn from it and try to make sure that we have enough in the future. This year's weather just really held things back a lot if they even made it through the summer at all. Dave and I spent a lot of time watering plants. It was bad enough with it being so dry, but then we had the unbearable heat too. I can't remember it ever getting up to 105 deg. here before, but it did this year. We had multiple days when it was 100+ deg; most years it usually doesn't reach 100° here at all before this year. Low to mid nineties are usually our highest temps in the summer, and every several years it might get up to 100° one time. The plants just didn't like the way it was this year, and it made us a lot more work having to water things every day. Whew!

Sorry to hear that the things didn't make it at Rachel's. I hope she didn't lose her perennials. We did some watering of those, but for the most part what we were concerned about was the veggie garden and annual flowers. Our hose doesn't reach down to the milkweed patch, so the tropical milkweed plants probably didn't get as much water as they should have had, but it's just too much lugging all those gallon jugs down there. We watered but sparingly. I'm always concerned about running the well dry in years like this, but it would probably take a lot to do that.

I'm glad that you at least had the milkweed that you did have so that you could raise some Monarchs. I know, like me, you were probably hoping for some more though. Let's hope for a year that's not so dry in 2011; then our milkweed should be okay. My potted TMW is blooming now too. I think that's a good idea of you putting the pots in the garage. As long as it doesn't get too cold in there, I think they should be okay.

I guess you and Susan and I will find out how the Purple MW does in pots. I wanted to try a different kind of milkweed and when I saw the flowers of the PMW online, that made up my mind, so now I have a bunch of them if they all make it over the winter. No, they don't grow much the first year, and they don't bloom the first year (mine didn't anyway).

Cathy

Cathy, I remember that my Common MW plants only got to about 10 inches tall the first year. Following that year, they grew up to 4-5 feet and also bloomed. Rachel did lose a lot in her yard this past summer. The wedding planning combined with the heat and the drought didn't make for a good gardening year. I hope that she has more success next year. I'll let you know how the overwintered Tropical MW in pots does! May end up being a bad idea, but it can't hurt to try.

My problems with the Purple Milkweed are tough for me to resolve. I planted a few of the small ones in the ground - the slugs ate them and they didn't survive. I left some in pots. They would get too dry and lose all their foliage. Some actually died, but others came back and refoliated. Those have now lost their leaves, and whether or not they will come back is a mystery until next year. It seems they did not like too much water, but did not like to totally dry out either, so watering was a very fine line between too dry or too wet. It was frustrating to say the least. I think I will order some more seeds just in case. If it doesn't work next year, I'll probably give up on this one. I tried it from a plant I ordered a few years ago, and the slugs ate it, too, and it didn't come back. So, it would seem they are kind of "iffy" in the first year of life.

I also have some A. speciosa, viridis, and tuberosas. I planted a few, but some are still in pots to winter over. We shall see.

Unfortunately, ladies, we are in a La Nina pattern, meaning drought for now that will probably extend thru the 2011 summer months. Little, if any, rain is expected next year, so plan on watering. Cathy, can you not add an extension to your hose to reach your milkweed? Not saying to water all the time, but when it gets extreme. If you can get an extension hose to reach, and use some drip hoses mingled among your milkweed to connect it to, you'll use less water, too.

I went ahead and ordered some more pipevine seeds from Georgia Vines, of Aristolochia manshuriensis and A. contorta, both hardy here, and some Asclepias fruticosa. I am not sure if this is synonymous with A. physocarpa or not. Some say it is, some say it is different in that the flowers are larger in one and smaller in the other. Cathy, you might want to try the A. physocarpa and A. fruticosa. It takes a little longer to germinate than the A. curassavica, but if you start it indoors in February or March, it should be ready to go by the time the Monarchs arrive. After the Monarchs consume the foliage, I think it refoliates quicker than A. curassavica does, too. That's just been my experience this summer.

This was just not a good year for wintersowing and trying to establish small plants. First, it was too cold and rainy in spring, and then we went immediately into the high heat and humidity. Lots of bugs this year due to the early onset of the heat, too.

So, I'm focusing on Pipevines and Milkweeds and nectar plants next year.

I attached a link to info on A. purpurascens from the Illinois Wildflowers website. They have lots of good, comprehensive info on their seeds.

Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Asclepias purpurascens

Angie, The Common MW sounds about like the Purple MW then with the growth rate. Actually, the leaves remind me on one another a lot with that big leathery look. I guess that's understandable why Rachel's garden got neglected; I hope her wedding went well. I don't know how cold it gets in your garage, but I kept Tropical MW in our laundry room a few years ago. At the time it got pretty cold out there, but they did fine the following year when I put them outside. I only brought a few in this year because with all of the various plants that I brought in, it would just be too crowded out there if I'd bring in 20 or so TMW plants.

Susan, I'm also having trouble figuring out what exactly the Purple MW wants. It doesn't help matters that the squirrels seem to take a liking to the milkweed pots and bury their stash in there, digging out my plants in the process! If the Purple MW do well, I might just try at least one(s) of those that you mentioned (I don't know either if they're the same thing). It certainly doesn't hurt to have a variety of milkweed. I pretty much went through the same things that you did with them, including those darn slugs. I have a constant battle with slugs here with so many different kinds of plants. They really loved the paw paw trees that I had in tree pots before they got planted outside. I despise those creatures.

I don't have A. speciosa or viridis, but I do have tuberosa, what's left of them anyway. Over the past several years I've gradually been losing them for some reason. I guess I'll have to start more. The flowers are beautiful and the butterflies love to nectar on them. I just wish they'd bloom through the summer like the A. curassavica.

Oh, I was so hoping the next year wouldn't be dry like this year. Maybe I should mentally prepare myself ahead of time now that you said that. Ha. We do put several hoses together and can reach part of the milkweed patch that way, but the water pressure isn't so great with each hose we add on. I've never tried drip hoses but have considered it. The funds always goes for something else though, so it's never happened.

Thanks for the tips and the link. It sounds like you're gearing up for next year. Now I really feel far behind! ;-)

Cathy

Hi Cathy,

I winter sow all of mine too and the ones I did last winter grew quite well but I certainly did not get the dry hot weather you folks had. The Incarnata grew so well in it's first year that I used it for feeding the cats quite a bit. I hope you have better conditions next year!

In regards to overwintering Curassavica/Tropical Milkweed, I've done it for the last couple of years. In the first year of a typical growing season here it will not even get to the blooming stage and so a couple of years ago I tried keeping it over the winter in my basement (we don't have a garage). Even though our basement is 80% finished, we still don't heat it so the temperature goes down to 5C (40F) with an average 40% humidity. I cut them back to about 1 foot. They are kept a bit on the semi-dry side with just a bit of watering every 3 to 4 weeks. The light in the basement is bright and indirect sunlight.

They do leaf out a bit during the winter - nothing big. In the spring I bring them upstairs to a warmer room and start feeding them a bit and then when there is no chance of frost they go out on the patio in pots or go in the gardens to fill holes.

This will be my third winter overwintering.

Tiffy, You're so lucky that you didn't get that dry hot weather. I'm glad that your plants did well so the cats there had plenty to eat.

It sounds like that works out well for you with overwintering the Tropical MW in your basement. Like you, we don't have a garage either, and our basement gets almost no light or I'd keep them down there. I almost need a machete to get through our laundry room, but there were plants that I really didn't want to lose over the winter so in they came.

I'm going to also winter sow some Tropical MW but want to make sure I have some big ones to start out with. Thanks, and congrats on finding an overwintering technique that works out so well.

Cathy