You can buy the seeds for Asclepias tuberosa right at Lowe's, but it's not called that. I'll have to look up my package and see what its sold as. It's the pretty orange one that is low-growing.

You can probably find some right around your neighborhood. Here's a good page to use to identify them.
http://www.sharonsflorida.com/milkweeds_native_to_florida.htm

Thanks for mentioning my article Dirty. :) Most people would be amazed that there are native milkweeds growing all around them ... along roadsides ... in the woods ... even on their own property. Most are not very showy, but once you know what you're looking for you can find them all over the place. Keep an eye out for them and wait for a seed pod or two to ripen and get them started at your own place.

It's been my experience that the butterflies don't utilize A. tuberosa as much as the other natives. It's my understanding that the foliage is just not as lush and juicy (for lack of a better term) compared to other milkweeds and that most monarchs don't really use it that often. A. incarnata is a good one to use in the garden and lots of people sell seeds for it on ebay.

Happy butterfly gardening everyone!

I love your blog! I didn't realize it was you until I saw a post from you in here.

Wow Sharon! Your webpage is where I found out about all the different native FL. milkweeds. Great site! While the tuberosa is my all-time favorite flower I really like wild flowers as a whole more than cultivated ones. And flowers do so much better in their natural habitat. That's why I'm looking for native milkweed nurseries. My flowerbeds are more than 50% wild flowers.

Thank you for sharing the information on the milkweed. I mostly have the tuberosa, but have several other spots that might support other varieties.

In my experience, it is easy to get milkweed to germinate from seed, but hard to successfuly transplant them. They don't seem to like having their roots messed with. The most success I have had is by buying potted plants and setting them in the general area I want them and letting them reseed themselves. Considering the plight of the monarch, milkweed is one of the few plants I don't ry to control. If it comes up in the 'wrong' bed, then it is now the 'right' bed.

Michael—I started out with the tropical variety (A. currassavica—didn't know any better then about planting native varieties) and had great success with transplanting the seedlings (seeds from the original plants) when they were quite young. My problem is that they don't seem to grow very rapidly. I've gotten some seeds for a native variety and hope I will have better luck with them. I haven't found anywhere locally where I can buy potted native milkweed plants, but I am going to call a FL native nursery a little south of where I am to see if they have any.

Michael, I plant all my natives right into where I want them. I tried once to transplant some small natives from a lot being bulldozed, but they didn't take. I'm like you. If it comes up wherever, I usually leave it. I have more luck transplanting the tropical milkweed, though. I guess it's because it's been bred to be planted in flats and transplanted.

The tropical milkweed seed never comes up where I plant it. I've noticed it likes to come up where a tree branch or small log or some other debris are. Kinda like the seed goes under there and is sheltered and stays moist. Another one grew under the bottom edge of a waterlily pot. I didn't put it there but its very happy. I had to put some screening over the waterlily pot though because the monarch caterpillars kept falling off the plant into the water. Mostly they would land on a lily pad but then be trapped lol.

Michael you're right about transplanting milkweed. I had success with tuberosa but only if doing it when the plants are no more than about 6" tall in the spring & digging them up without disturbing the roots & shielding them from sun for about a week afterwards.

Sharon thanks for the link.

I was at Driftwood Nursery (Estero, FL) this afternoon after work and found this line called Botanical Interests with seeds of a few varieties of native milkweeds for sale (mostly tuberosa and incarnata, although one other version was sold out). I am not sure if their products are also available online.