Not with my tropical milkweed, but my aquatic and green milkweed both flowered nicely and didn’t get any seeds.

I seem to have fewer bees than last year, for some reason. I haven't even seen my usual paper or solitary wasps. My next door neighbor always knocks down the paper wasp nests, so they don't even bother to try to make nests anymore. I've asked her not to, but she's scared of them.

Do you have chili thrips where you live.... they go after my milkweed. I had to spray them with spinosad and cover them so the butterflies would NOT get killed.... after getting rid of the CT milkweed started to grow like crazy.

I have no idea, Sharon. I don't see signs of thrips on the milkweed, just some aphids, but the lizards and ladybugs keep those under control.

Did you fertilize them? Could the soil be too rich? I recall reading , for some plants,

making seeds is the last ditch effort to replace itself before succumbing. Maybe

the plants are making foliage and blooms because they're still relatively healthy

from too much nutrients.

You may have a point, mr1010. I don't fertilize them, but they are in the bed that has tons of earthworms, and I've worried before that the soil may be too rich. I put some cuttings into containers, but those haven't bloomed. Not much I can do about the earthworms, but I did plan on moving some of the ones in that bed this year anyway. Right now, I have three fat larvae on them, so no go until those babies do their things.

I'm envious of your earthworms. At my last home I 'cultivated' a patch for them with

all kinds of good compost/food items. And voila, they showed up.

Here I just have leaves and dry, hot sand. Betcha there's not one earthworm on

the property. I supplement with lots of horse manure in many areas but no dice.

PS/ Milkweeds are often sold with that dark rich soil around the roots, which in my

experience is not the best soil for them long term.

I have some beautiful Native milkweeds out in my dry, sandy pastures- no care

whatsoever- and they thrive.

hmmm. The milkweed that grows up in my rose beds (which is heavily fertilized) does get seed pods.... Thrips and Chili thrips are different. I don't normally see them. They are tiny, but since I get CT's in the roses I know they attack the milkweed too... because it shows the same symptoms. True it is NOT a host plant for CT's.... but when I can't get out to spray the roses on a timely manner, the CT's get over on the milkweed.

mr1010 I never have done anything but put leaves on top of the ground every year. The earthworms were there to begin with, and 3-1/2 years later, there are just tons of them. I was taking them from areas where they were abundant and moving them to other, drier areas. We found a lot when we were laying the small patio area last week, which was strange, since I hadn't been piling leaves there.

Sometimes, they get into pots and eat the roots, which I don't like. They make the soil too rich and it holds too much water, and plants can die.

Well, with the fresh crop of monarch cats I found, looks like I won't get any seeds this year. Maybe next spring. I'd rather have butterflies, and I can get plenty of cuttings before frost hits.

I have noticed lately, since not many plants are blooming, that my dozens

of Cape Honeysuckle plants have loads of bees on the blooms.

I really adore these plants, since they flourish and bloom so late when

other things in the yard are starting to sag. My yard is a huge explosion

of bright orange!!

Dirtygardener, maybe you need a couple of these around for the bees. ??

Jay, that's interesting. I plan on planting many more flat flowers next year to attract more bees (marigolds, zinnias, cosmos, etc.) I'm also growing elderberry, which was a bee magnet at my old house.

I live in a heavily populated area, so there really aren't a lot of bees around here. I've only seen a couple of honeybees in the almost 4 years I've been here. I've even though of buying a hive, but my landlord won't allow it, so all I can do is try to attract what pollinators there are. I've seen native green bees and sweat bees, and a few solitary wasps. I used to have a couple of nice carpenter bees when I had my pigeon peas growing, but they died in the freeze last year, and the ones I planted this year didn't really grow at all, for some strange reason.

I think you're right, though, and plan to plant many more flowers that bees love. Last year, I had a lot of marigolds blooming around the milkweed, but this year, the marigolds just didn't do as well. This has been a strange year overall in my garden. Hopefully, 2019 will be better.

mr1010, I have no space to plant cape honeysuckle, and I hesitate anyway, because it nearly took over my yard at my old house, running underground and coming up everywhere. My neighbor has some on her fence, and I've thought of asking for a cutting, but couldn't find a place to plant it.

dirtygardener: Message me if you'd like some tropical MW seeds -- I'm happy to pop some in the mail to you!

Pigeon peas, like in partridge peas? They are taking over my back yard. They grew through the bricks in the patio. It was bumblebee heaven. Prairie Moon Nursery keeps sending packets of partridge pea seeds as freebees. Probably because they are heavy seeders. Unless you mean the edible pigeon peas, but I don't think people usually grow those for the butterflies.

Mint family plants are very good for attracting bees. A few are bee balms, Monarda, Anise Hyssup, Agastache foeniculum, Scutellarias, Salvias, Nepetas, Mountain mints.

Jay, I definitely plan to get more salvias this year, especially perennials. Bee balms don't seem to do well for me, for some reason, but catmints do o.k.

No, not partridge peas, the edible ones. They're grown for bees, not butterflies. I'll be happy to send you some seeds.

Thanks for your generous offer, but I'm already growing lots of plants including lots of legumes which is what the bees also love. Blue Baptisia, Purple Prairie Clover, Blue Lupins, Senna obtusifolia, Scarlet Runner Bean, Lespedeza, Thermopsis, leadplant, Illinois bundleflower. Bees like all legumes. They love the white and yellow weedy sweet clovers which are also butterfly host plants. I have leftover seeds for the Baptisia, Purple Prairie Clover, Leadplant, Partridge pea, Senna, and Illinois bundleflower if anyone would like some.

Jay, I saw today some type of fly-bee on one of my tropical milkweed flowers. Thanks for letting me know he was doing me a favor vs. the other way around. ps. I sent you a message re seeds tonight.

I would be interested in the Blue Baptisia, Purple Prairie Clover, Leadplant and Partridge pea.

https://butterflygardening.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/milkweed-pollination/

Barb, I can send you the seeds. I need an address. Your messaging isn't turned on.

Jay, is yours turned on? I sent you a message. DirtyGardiner, yours? DG do you want some of my seeds... just produced.

Irma, I got your message. I will get back.

My salvias are still blooming here especially the Wendy's Wish, Amistad, Pineapple Sage, and Love and Wishes. So I still have bees and butterflies on the flowers. Lots of Sulphur Butterflies right now.

I have seed pods on some of my milkweeds and they dont have any leaves left on them due to the cats lol. Im hoping they will reseed abundantly. They are happier reseeding on their own than if I plant them.

Bee Balms hate me. The only one that grew well here was one I got at Home Depot that I left in its peat pot and it rooted itself in the ground and got 5ft! It didnt return in the spring.

The 2 Monarda species that are most suited for your Florida climate are M. citriodora and M. punctata.

Thanks. I will google those two.

Irma, I'm packing your seeds now and sending them tomorrow. Barb, can you personally message me and give me your address? Go to my home page and press either activity or follow and the message box will show, thanks.

Irma, your seeds are ready to send tomorrow. Barb please send me your address. Your seeds are ready to send. I don't want to make 2 trips to the post office. Thanks

Barb, I need your address. My messaging is turned on. If you can't personal message me, then go to my thread on the native plants forum and contact me there so we can finish this. I have extra seeds of Baptisia, Purple prairie clover, Illinois bundleflower, Senna obtusifolia, Leafy prairie clover. The Senna is a butterfly host plant and bee magnet. I'm out of Partridge pea seeds. All these legumes attract bees.

> Posted by Sharon2079 : "they go after my milkweed"

Here's something that I found on tropical :

It was at a munched hole (didn't reply when I asked whether he was the muncher).

It was longer /narrower before I disturbed it.

Anyone recognize?