How to sow
The easiest route is fall sowing outdoors. For spring planting, give seeds about 30 days of cold, moist stratification, then sow roughly ¼ inch deep.
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Seeds from My Garden
Butterfly Weed
Asclepias tuberosa
This is the milkweed I have the most seed to share. Its orange flowers feed pollinators, and its leaves feed monarch caterpillars—the tiny striped guest in this photo included.
Light
Full sun
Sow
¼ inch deep
Soil
Dry, drained soil
Habit
Native perennial
How to grow
Choose a sunny, well-drained permanent spot. Butterfly weed develops a deep taproot and does not enjoy transplanting. Avoid pesticides anywhere caterpillars may be feeding.
What to expect
Be patient: seed-grown plants can take two or three years to settle in and flower. Unlike common milkweed, butterfly weed grows in a clump rather than running through the bed by rhizomes.
Seed-sharing note
These seeds came from plants growing in my garden. Seedlings are individuals, so they may not look exactly like the parent plant—and that is part of growing from seed.
From my garden
A closer look
A note from my garden
“Finding a monarch caterpillar on a plant I grew never gets old. A few chewed leaves are exactly what success looks like here.”