Visit Monarch Watch. There is a section on the website that describes each of the milkweeds and how to best grow them.

Martha

I remember it taking a season or two for my plants (started from seed) to take off. Now that they have established roots they are doing better. They don't run all over the place and send up as many shoots as some other species. I have mine in part day shade, on the edge of a perennial bed. My soil is probably acidic where they are located (next to a pine needle-mulched path). The soil gets watered when we have gone awhile without rain, to keep the perennial bed from wilting. I hope that helps.

Wow, lovely blooms. I'd say they certainly like where they're planted.

Mary

gorgeous!!!

Plant4wildlife, with all of the lovely blooms on your Asclepias
purpurescen, were you lucky enough to get any seedpods? Wondering how willingly it produces seed.

Mary

I can only say that I chased around one year trying to get seed from both this and one other species. The only one I succeeded at was the one in a pasture about 100 yards from the house...and only because I watched it basically every day. The purpurescen got away before I could catch it.

Mary, A purpurascens is a good seed producer once it is well established. I have a friend that has a colony that is several years old. She harvests seed pods every year and shares them. I am trying to get a colony established in my BY. This plant is not invasive like syriaca, but will multiply within a smaller area. My friend's plants grow in a shaded area. This plant isn't as fussy about shade or sun as some plants are.

HI Sandy,

Thank you so much for sharing this information. It is nice to know they willingly produce seed if they're happy. Good to hear they will take some shade, too. A 'new to me' plant and excited to watch them grow (at least that is my hope! :-)

Mary

I bought some seeds (expensive), placed them in moist vermiculate, paper towel & ziploc bag to stratify( fridge), not even a single one sprouted...

Hi Mary,

Sorry not to get back to you sooner, on vacation with the family. I did get several nice pods from those first blooms. Sadly we moved that fall, have been establishing more plants at our new home the last 3 yrs...all with seeds collected from the plants in the picture. Plants at our present home have not been as quick to produce seedpods, partly because it is the #1 choice for Monarch cats on our property. Hoping this coming summer will produce some nice seedpods...

This has been a really informative thread. I hope one day the seed are more easily available as it sounds like a lovely milkweed to grow in the home garden. I had OLD seed purchased in 2010 that I winter sowed this year and I am seeing some germination. Didn't really expect anything so I'm thrilled to see some green in the jug. Too early to tell if they will grow into healthy seedlings but I'm encouraged by the fact that some seed are germinating. A good lesson for me to learn is to not assume old seed will not germinate.

A wonderful gardener shared with me more recent Asclepias purpurescens seed and those seedlings are doing very well. I've had them inside under grow lights and they're now old enough to begin hardening off for outside planting. Looking forward to paying it forward if I ever have seed of this variety of milkweed to share.

Mary