When i was a boy on my dad's farm, we considered milkweed as a weed. The seeds are spread by the wind. I would not plant them in my garden. I cut too many out of our crops.

There is also climbing milkweed which is invasive but I like it because the small flowers are fragrant. Monarchs like it. I have the pink milkweed and don't mind it. It does spread but so far has not caused me a problem. It seems to send runners and pop up a distance from where it was planted. Monarchs like it too.

Vines take over at my place nothing is worse than the cinnamon vine - yam - air potato - horrible invasive vine.

I added two more kinds of milkweed this year that I started from seed in early spring, swamp milkweed, and purple milkweed. Neither one of those should be too agressive I hope.

I remove seed pods from all my milkweeds so they won't spread to our hayfield. The pods take a long time to mature so it's pretty easy to stay on top of them.

I hope I have identified this correctly. I think it's common milkweed (syriaca). It sent up several stalks over a six or eight foot area that were taller than me this summer. This is the most agressive milkweed for me. I've tried digging it out and spraying it with Roundup but it still comes back. Monarchs prefer the others so I'd like to get rid of it. This may be the one you had trouble with on your farm Darrylvk. It grows bigger if it's in a cultivated area rather than competing with grasses in a hayfield. Here's a photo I took of a leaf from mine.

I probably have that one that spreads for you in good soil. My soil is rocks. It does spread but it is hemmed in at my house by a Bradford pear and walnut tree and that is not a really good area anyway for fussy plants. I like the weird dusty pink flower and the fact it doesn't die. Mine gets covered with cats and the leaves look ratty.

I would plant it, the habitat for Monarchs is shrinking dramatically, one of the big reasons is loss of Milkweed pants.

I don't think the orange one is invasive. I've collected seeds and planted, never had one germinate. The pods have dozens of seeds each and yet, there really aren't that many orange ones growing in the wild.
I also have the tropical milkweed. I've had it self seed, but only a few plants from that method. I find these easy to grow from seed.
I have the pink wild one also. It's planted in a bed that stays pretty dry, so it has not spread yet. If it did, OK by me as nothing else grows there.

Ann - Welcome to Gardenweb! I would agree about orange milkweed not being invasive. I'd love to see a whole field of it sometime but it's usually just dotted here and there if I see it at all. The type in the photo above is much more agressive and sends out runners underground that come up several feet away from the original plant. It would take over in a perennial garden. That's the only one I know of that is so agressive.

I have used the Winter Sowing method to start orange milkweed and it worked quite well. I was thinking that the seeds didn't require winter stratification though so I'm not sure that was what caused your trouble. If you're collecting seeds on your own, I have noticed the pods take a long time to mature. The seeds should be brown if they're ready.
Winter Sowing is basically starting seeds outside in vented containers during winter and removing the lids when the seedlings germinate in the spring rather than starting them in the house. Gardenweb has a forum called "Winter Sowing" if you're interested. It's a great way to fight off winter blahs.

We are getting close to the Solstice which I think is a starting date for winter sowing. I have some jugs saved and have potting soil in the barn - dry. In the past my potting soil has been frozen hard and hard to find in stores in the big bags especially in late winter when I want to start tomatoes in doors. Lowe's still has their potting soil easily available, but by Feb it may have ice and snow on it. I wish I had some orange milkweed seeds saved because drought tolerant is the way to go these days. I am thinking of getting some columbine and maybe gaillardia seeds.

Thanks, Christie and Helen. Actually, I'm back after a several year absence. Just got busy with other things. I couldn't remember my p/w, so got a new name (I used ChanceyGardener before). Christie, you sent me some plants that I still have, even after a move...some frosty morn sedum, some lamb's ear (forgot variety)and something else, although I can't remember what at the moment. So, thank you again for sharing. I used to winter sow, might have to get into that again.

Welcome BACK then Ann lol. It's a lot of trouble having to keep track of passwords for different things isn't it.
The lamb's ears was probably Helen Von Stein. That's the only variety I can remember growing. It's tough stuff. As Helen said, drought tolerant is the way to go. The last two summers that we've had sure make a person appreciate plants that don't need a lot of water.

Yes, Christie, that's the one-Helen Von Stein. Agree 100% on drought tolerant for any replacements!

Milkweed is completely edible and from what the experts say it is pretty good.

I will probably try some if I have any I can find.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wild Foods

Welcome Rogersan! That's a good article - very detailed. I was aware the new spears are edible but haven't tried them. I didn't know you could eat the flowers and seed pods. We'll see if I ever get the nerve to try those someday.
Samuel Thayer has written a couple of very detailed books on harvesting and preparing wild edibles. I have checked them both out from our library. I liked the second one better. The first one had a lot of plants that would be found around water which I don't have on my property so there were quite a few plants that weren't familiar to me and ones that I wouldn't be able to find unless I looked very hard. The second book had more plants that I would know where to find. The article you linked says "Forager's Harvest" so I wonder if it might be from one of his books or his website.
Common milkweed is pretty easy to start from seed if you have an out-of-the-way spot to plant them. If you plant them yourself, then you know you're harvesting the right thing.
In our area, I'm pretty sure Monarchs aren't laying eggs yet when the spears come up in the spring. I don't think it would affect the Monarchs at all to collect plants to eat. And I'm certain it wouldn't kill the plants. You can dig those things out with a shovel and still not kill them.

The website below has seeds. It says plant height three feet but mine was easily twice that tall last summer.

Here is a link that might be useful: Prairie Moon Nursery - Asclepias Syriaca seeds

I grow Swamp Milkweed in Huntsville, Al. I find it to be a magnet for Monarchs. Unfortunately, it is VERY invasive in good soil. A note about the Monarch situation: Last spring, my milkweed was covered with Monarch eggs. It is now mid-June 2013, and I have seen neither Monarchs nor eggs. Sad. I am a digital photo butterfly collector. I have found that there has been a general loss of butterflies over a decade. Since all my photo names contain a date, a peruse of my files tell a story. Once by this date I would have many photos. This year I have none.

Here is a link that might be useful: Born Free Butterflies

This post was edited by alsearsa on Wed, Jun 12, 13 at 15:34

Before you eat milkweed, make sure you have one that is really edible. One big reason Monarchs like milkweed is that the cardiac "poisons" (they disrupt your electrolyte balance) in many milkweeds deter birds which would otherwise eat the butterflies. Don't eat it if it is bitter. How to tell if milkweed is edible

Milkweed pods really have a fairly hard time reproducing - but the roots will spread and pop up new ones. You can plant in metal box in the ground that prevents spreading- one of those bamboo underground metal root traps works great

It's sad about the Monarch decline not only milk weed but their wintering habitat is getting very small and is the bigger problem . They breed their way north but isn't it a single generation that migrates back to Mexico?

Yes and Mexico has declared their wintering habitat closed to logging and they have put soldiers in the area to protect it.

The real problem is loss of breeding habitat in the US, including Missouri. It's gone, milkweed is gone. In addition, stuff like roundup pesricide that is sprayed on crops and now wih GMO crops within the crop itslelf is killing milkweed and the butterfly and bees for that matter too.

So planting a small patch of milkweed in your yard and some Monarch flowers that bloom on their way back in later summer /early fall like Blazing Star will really help

yea JoeinMo I've got a Butterfly haven with bloomers all season. Got some milkweed seed from a fellow garden web friend but didn't or haven't come up yet. I went to an auction yesterday and drove about 40 miles west of me on I-44 and did see some milk weed I wonder since it's been so wet I could stop and dig a few up to trans plant would like to get a patch going, I also agree on the herbicide and pesticides we are spraying along with the GMO surge people try and say it's a great thing and no evidence to prove it's bad my response is and Doctors said the same about smoking I've tried my hardest in my 40+ years of gardening to be use no pesticides or herbicides but it's more labor intenseive but gardening time is when I talk to god so it's a joy for me ( it's just my thing ). It was about 7-8 years ago on a giant Buddleia (white) I had at least 2-3 hundred late one afternoon they stayed the night even bouncing off the windows at night I got up before light and watched them leave all in about a hour were gone have never seen anything like it since (ugg and I didn't take any pics). Bees and other pollenators are suffering the same fate

OGG,

The milkweed will die if you try and replant, unless very tiny newly emerging, but the stuff growing this far into the season will just die.

I have all kinds of pods on my milkweed this year will be happy to send you a pod in late Sept and you can pull all seeds out and plant for next spring. Just let me know and send me an address to mail or let me know on here and we will figure out a way to get you some

Here is one of just two Monarch Caterpillar's I was able to get to this stage this year. Out of 10

Young milkweed can be cooked like asparagus, if you happen to get it and it spreads, eating it, is one way to control it

I am an ecologist working in the Fingerlakes region. We perform a wide array of invasive plant control to restore native habitats.

Although Common, Swamp, and Butterfly Milkweed are agressive and very quick to spread, they are not ever considered invasive in most of the United States. People can often label "weedy" and "undesirable" plants as invaeive just because they do not like them. A plant thay it considered invasive is usually non-native and has no real ecological value.

That being said, there are many actually invasive plants in the Milkweed family. Please do not ever plant Climbing Milkweed. Pale and Black Swallowart are also in the milkweed and are considered highly invasive. You may see many butterflys on these plants, such as Monarchs, but the Monarch larvae cannot eat the leaves of these types of Milkweed and will die. Please DO NOT plant them!

Thanks Ryan for the info, I like swamp milk weed, it flowers after common and stays green much later. Also it seems to bunch up and spreads more evenly so easier to control. The reality is ..there use to be milkweed everywhere, unfortunately it really has been exterminated and is one often the reasons for the decline of the Monarch Butterfly. Milkweed has an incredible fragrance, attracts so many butterfly's and even hummingbirds. It's a must for any garden

A Monarch Pupa in my garden

You do not want to plant tropical milkweed unless you are in the tropics: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/01/plan-save-monarch-butterflies-backfires

Thanks Marian. I am in,northern Arkansas and the first frost kills the tropical milkweed in a flash. I did not know about the disease aspect. Thanks for sharing the link. Sadly, we did not see any monarch cats this year and only a couple of monarch butterflies graced our gardens this year. (2016)

My pleasure...we are all doing the best we can:) Let me recommend a good resource, because the monarchs are just one species we should worry about. Doug Tallamy, Bringing Nature Home. There are very good lectures of his on You Tube. he is very entertaining while also being an impeccable scientist. A combo we need more people to be! I am a garden designer who always pushed natives, but this guy blew my mind and resulted in looking at my property with new eyes! Also check out this amazing resource: yardmap.org.

I am familiar with the books of Doug Tallamy. However, I wasn't aware of his YouTube stuff. Thanks again and I'm off to the tube!