Thanks Jay for the response. I just didn't want to sow them too early if they didn't have to be stratisfied. You are lucky to have several ways you can germinate your seeds. Sounds like you have a nice assortment of the Troptical seeds. Good luck with them.

Thanks whatis, hopefully I'll get enough seeds from the Gomphocarpus and Calotropis to share around. Great luck with your's too.

whatis, I did read somewhere the other day that soaking the curassavica seeds in warm water for 24 hours prior to sowing will soften the seedcoats, aiding faster germination. I plan on using that method on all the tropicals.

Jay, that sounds like a plan. Thank you very much.

I am in zone 6 and tropical milkweed self sows for me so you can winter sow them if that is easier. This year the self sown starters were bigger than my indoor starts. Not sure if that was true every year.

Thanks Loretta, that is good to know. And great that they self sow for you and that our zone is ,good for that.

I'm in zone 6 too. The curassavica here might get one or two volunteers in a good year, but not enough or dependable enough to rely on for new plants. Is all of New Jersey in zone 6? You have a couple native mikweeds that are very cool. The Asclepias lanceolata and A. rubra. Being on the coast, New Jersey might be slightly more favorable for volunteers. The people in the butterfly forum were all starting curassavica from cuttings this year because there were so many Monarch caterpillars. Another option, if your milkweeds get too big inside start many more from cuttings. It's an easy process. I think with winter sowing that soaking the seeds for a few hours is enough for the north american native milkweeds. They will be exposed to moisture all winter. The tropicals are ok to soak for 24 hours. Since I noticed the couple A. arenaria seeds popping I decided to cut back the soaking time on the natives.

Jay, do you harvest all your seed or do you get milkweed bugs eating the seeds? I'm zone 6b and we've had some very cold winters the past few years. I have planted tropical milkweed at my home garden and at my community garden plot and they have returned at both locations. Whatis123, I have a gardening friend in MO and his posts show your season is usually a week or two ahead of me.

Jay is probably right and you should do at least a few indoor starts to make sure you establish a supply and get some fresh seeds (they do last longer than a year for me). Then you can fool around with different methods. The monarchs love tropical milkweed and will lay a lot of eggs on it. The leaves are small compared to common milkweed so they go through a plant faster. More is good for that.

The only seeds there were, were syriaca. None of my other milkweeds had seeds. Only the common milkweeds that got the most sun had seeds. The syriacas that were in partly shaded spots stayed fresher longer than the ones in full sun, which was good because there were lots of Monarch caterpillars.

A. tuberosa and A. curassavica went to seed for me. They regularly do. I have a few other milkweeds but no seeds from them. They are all young plants so maybe in the future.

Loretta, yes I will save some seeds and plant inside also to make sure there are some of them germinating.