Apparently mine didn't like the conditions in my garden--it failed to come back the spring after planting. They aren't as showy as most milkweeds, so I placed them where I would see them while walking a side yard garden path. I tend to consider the butterflies they attract as their contribution to the "show". :) I may try them again some time, when the budget has more wiggle room for "iffies". Hope your plants thrive.

This little guy will be a thug the second year if it is happy. Think 3 feet tall and spreading underground. Also very much a yellow aphid magnet, The last straw for me was 0 monarch caterpillars in 3 years. Oh and I don't think anyone would call it attractive either.

Interesting, I don't need more aphids ;-) I put them into a large pot for now so I didn't forget to water...the yard is watered by hand and most things are established. So maybe they would be better in the neglected parts of the backyard rather than out front?

I've had those yellow aphids on the tropical milkweed. I was worried that they might attack other plants, but they stayed on the milkweed and didn't seem to affect it either. If they are washed off, they return right away, so don't bother. I had quite a few cats last year but the only chrysalis I saw was in the container in which I had a captured cat. I don't know if the cats weren't making it to the chrysalis stage or they were able to hide at that time. It's concerning me.

The tropical milkweed is a lot prettier from what I've seen online, but I read it doesn't have the proper chemicals that give monarch caterpillars protection from predators. I wonder if that might be what's happening in your yard, socks. I also wonder how long it takes monarchs to discover patches of milkweed...I do see adults fly through the yard but they aren't the most frequent butterfly visitors.

I've also read this milkweed goes dormant; does that mean best transplanting (for people like me, who forget to water the new plants in July/August/September) is in the late winter? I am thinking to let them grow in the large pot for a season, get more robust (I think they were started from seed) and then put them in a sunny spot in the backyard around February next year.

I've read that this species is more likely to be a food plant here in CA, but no cats for me. I have also grown other species and still have a stand of A. speciosa going on, all with no cats yet - we do get the occasional Monarch. The perennials are best suited to a wild area which most would say is the back back yard :)

Wonderful plant. Grow it in between other milkweeds and next to a larger pollinator garden. The delicate white/pink blooms are amazing. It is a host plant but the narrow leaves are a small target for the monarch mama.

I grow both tropical and native milkweed (asclepias fascicularis). Cut the tropical down in the winter so the old leaves don't harbor o.e., and it will grow back just fine.

Update: of the three plants, only two are still growing in the pot. One totally disappeared, I could only find the roots and although I was hoping they would grow a new stem, sadly they haven't. Of the other two, something came along and ate every leaf off one except the leaf at the very top! I then covered the soil w/Sluggo because I suspect it was a slug or snail. The denuded plant is showing some re-growth and the other seedling has gotten a bit taller. Glad I've babied them, if they went right into the yard I bet the slugs and snails would have mowed them all down immediately.

Edit -- I stand corrected! My plant that was totally gone, with only roots left, is growing a new little stem and leaves after all :-)

the aphids on milkweed are not harmful to other plants - I've never seen them move. Also the butterflies apparently get the odor from them and also it makes them taste even worse to birds. While I don't go out and search for them I don't do anything about them. I have about a dozen different kinds of milkweed, a speciosa attracts more monarchs and also has much nicer flowers when they bloom. I also have problems keeping narrow leaf happy.

They are oleander aphids, so they are fond of that plant, too. ;)

I cut the tropical milkweed down to the ground middle of last summer since it was just sticks thanks to the caterpillars. It resprouted during the summer, died down again last fall. It's in bloom now, and even tho' I saw a monarch recently, no action on the milkweed yet. I'll know when the leaves are being eaten. It's such a wonderful discovery to see the cats at work.

I hope you will take a picture Socks.

Actually, I don't wait for the leaves to be chewed, I look for eggs and hand raise the cats to pupa. Otherwise, every spider, fly, lizard, wasp that goes up takes a baby. That's why so few reach maturity.

I'd like to see those photos too.

2 days ago I checked under milkweed leaves and found eggs. So far I have collected 20!! They are now residing in a bottle in the kitchen so I can watch for hatching!!

Just thought I'd update with the latest developments. One didn't survive over summer, something ate it completely down TWICE. It recovered the first time but not the second.

The other two survived and I just transplanted them yesterday: one in front, one in the back.

I also collected seed from one, the more vigorous of the two, and spread the seed around the backyard as well. Fingers are crossed that they establish and thrive!

stomp the seed down so the birds don't eat it. also the one you thought was gone may have alive roots under the soil. check it out. I planted roots on year and they did well.

Good idea but the roots didn't survive. I'll remember that for future reference though!

I dug them this time of year, wrapped them in wet newprint, plastic bag and overwintered in the refrigerator. They all lived.

Melle, how did they look otherwise, did they bloom? Did you get Monarchs?

The two survivors looked pretty good, but only attracted the yellow oleander aphids (oddly I couldn't find any on our actual oleander that we've had for years...!) The vigorous plant did bloom as well, and was larger overall. The plant that didn't make it didn't leave any roots behind for me to try and rescue, they must have rotted.

The aphids in my area never go to anything but milkweed. The ants are farming right now. But there is a relationship between the butterflies and the aphids. Makes the bad taste in the cats and butterflies worse for birds and also gives off a scent that attracts the butterflies. I was checking my swan milkweed today and it has alot of the aphids.

--But there is a relationship between the butterflies and the aphids.

I think you mistakenly wrote aphids here instead of milkweed. The caterpillars feed on the milkweed and collect the cardiac glycosides toxins from the milkweed in their body.

Asclepias speciosa - Showy milkweed is very attractive to me and to the monarchs in my garden.

Recently cut this back because it was falling over the walkway. Also removed messy seed pods. I've seen monarchs visiting it but see no eggs or caterpillars. I do see ants, some very small red beetles, those larger red and black beetles.

Hi, that is a tropical milkweed that is very attractive to monarchs. Currivasia is the name. The aphids are yellow if it has any of those. I save seed pods to give away and also plant new plants.

My plants never reach the fullness of yours, socks--they get eaten to quickly. But this year has been a real dud for the Monarchs in my garden, I'm not sure why. Bee populations have fallen way off, too.

Yours looks like an established plant. But if it is a newer one, say the past 7 months, it might have been treated with a systemic that will kill the caterpillars.

That is true about the pesticide. They say it takes a year to go away. I try to grow only from seeds.

Have been neglecting the yard a bit this year due to other issues. But I was just outside doing some pruning, and noticed I have a lot of tall, uneaten milkweed. This is the first year that has happened since 2011 (when I planted them). Usually they are almost all just sticks by now. I can find hardly any caterpillars; usually I am moving them to fresh foliage every few days. Not a good year. I hope they just had an overabundance of the wild stuff after the winter rains...but I suspect that is not what is going on.

I am hoping that they have not started back from the north yet. I have a ton of milkweed of many varieties and nothing so far. Anise swallowtails are doing well. 10 are forming J right now and there are at least that many to go.

This milkweed resprouts every year. This is probably it's third summer.

it's still pretty early for the monarchs.

Not where I live. There are resident monarchs. They can go through four cycles of breeding and metamorphosis in one year here. I have feeding caterpillars in December.

I have dozens of tropical milkweed plants in my yard which come back year after year. This year I started some narrow-leaf milkweed from seed. They are in pots, only a few inches high. My plan is to replace all the tropical with the narrow leaf or other native milkweed because of the concern that tropical milkweed is infecting monarchs with ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE). Presently I see lots of adult monarchs flying around my yard and landing on the milkweed but so far I see no cats and my plants are uneaten. Other years my milkweed has been munched down to the stalk, but I never took note of when that happened. So I'm wondering if it's still early in the season for this to happen or if something else is going on. I plan to cut all my tropical down to the ground at the end of the summer to prevent the overwintering of OE. What are others seeing in their yards now? I'm in zone 11a/10b

My narrowleaf is blooming now and I am getting seed pods as I have been hand pollinating. Usually the monarchs don't lay eggs on that until late in the season like right now in Napa Valley. It takes awhile for them to get started and the roots travel underground aways. This winter you might put them in the ground and they die down and come back in the late spring. Lots of people are using the tropical and so I started some but it said somewhere to take all the leaves off in winter and when I did both plants died.

Wasps are the worse predators on the eggs and babies. I had one the other night who tried to take it from my hand!!!

I just started a bunch of cuttings of my tropical milkweed. My existing plant is pretty large (3'x3'), but the monarchs lay so many eggs it gets stripped of edibles before many caterpillars are big enough to survive. I usually see only 1 or 2 chrysalises.

Somebody recently told me cuttings don't work, but I've had good success with them before. Might be climate.

Put the cutting in a mixture of lava rock (small) and sand. Then cover with a bottle and keep moist. It should work. also to get seed I have been rubbing the flowers together to exchange pollen. It seems to be working.

Update - the larval love the golden aphids, they are delicious. I constantly roam through the milkweed looks for more eggs and small larval. Found 5 eggs on 2 small leaves last evening. If I wait until they hatch, all the other insects have had them for dinner.

I bought a narrow leaf and a showy milkweed last year and the guy at the nursery said one of them has a stronger preference for heat and sun than the other. I can't remember which one he said. Anybody have thoughts? I have a few seedlings of each kind now and am trying to determine good placement in my yard.

The narrow leaf from last year didn't make it but the showy one is doing well but hasn't bloomed yet...

so I guess from SF you are in the city. Narrow leaf is a native to this area and is the last one to come out of the ground. It spreads by roots and is now in my neighbor's yard. The other one which does great is also native and it is A.speciosa - blooms early and gets tall. I have several species and some of mine have not bloomed this year either. Hairy balls which is a tropical does very well and I hand pollinate so I get seeds.