r/Milkweeds

Mrs. Monarch just laid this egg plus others on my showy milkweed. It's the first time I've seen them doing it and taken a picture of the egg. Eastern Kansas.

So it’s my second year with milkweed. I bought 4 Asclepias Incarnata last year including two “Cinderella” cultivar because that’s what they had. And one Asclepias Tuberosa. Only the tuberosa flowered.

So this year everything flowered, and my largest Incarnata which has like 14 stalks and and is 54 inches tall from soil to tip on the tallest one. Is that very tall? Moreover, it also has 52 seed pods that seem to be maturing and a handful more that still might grow. My other 3 plants have like 5-6 seed pods each. Is that a lot? How tall do yours get and how many seed pods do you get?

Oh and I can’t really dig in the ground here because the maintenance people are careless and there are literally only 3 inches of soil on top of solid rock anyway, so don’t judge my container garden 😅
And the bamboo sticks are to keep it from flopping over when wind or rain is heavy, which was an issue this year.

And if you see My tuberosa didn’t make it but it had 2 seed pods and now I have 4 maturing plants (see the small black pots. I had 5 but one was dug up by an animal) and still more seeds to plant for this winter.

Counted ten this morning!

Does anyone know what's causing my milkweed to look like this? The leaves look oily. The pictures don't show it as much as it looks in person. Is there anything wrong with it? I've had milkweed growing here in the same place for a couple years now and this is the first time it's looked like this.

Located in Southern Ontario.

Who do these eggs belong to?

I think I should just spray the whole yard with pesticides???

My favorite plants of letting mother nature cross our Asclepias rubra to Asclepias lanceolata. These do naturally hybridize in the wild. We let our favorite specimen parents cross to create colors never before seen. Bumblebees did the crossing but planting thousands of seeds to find a few plants was a ton of work.

I have a bunch of milkweed growing in a greenhouse and noticed one plant looked whitish compared to others which were bright green. Is it completely toast or can I just trim the leaves off and hope for new growth?

Think this is the new non-native controversial milkweed but...anyone know what this is and best way to treat maybe with a diy method, soap, etc...

I found this beauty on an embankment off a canal. Technically it's on city property. I've tried to get permission from the public works department to take the plant but they haven't responded, but a few people in other departments have told me I should just "go for it" so... I'm going for it lol. They'll mow the plant down anyways pretty soon. Any tips on how to give it the best chance at survival? I know I need to mind the taproot and keep it wet.

I searched and searched and can’t figure out what these tiny black bugs are on my milkweed. Anyone know? I’ve been spraying with alcohol but that doesn’t seem to be doing anything. This is the best photo I could get (they are tiny!).

I occasionally see these black dots on my milkweed. Are they eggs? Some kind of other byproduct from an insect? I always pull them off but I don’t even know what they are

So I spoke with a very knowledgeable nursery guy yesterday and he shared the problem with “milkweed yellows”.

This is a bacterial infection transmitted by leafhoppers between milkweed plants and its primary host the invasive vinca (periwinkle).

It results in soft, stunted, limey green milkweed with a limited centre stalk and a very bushy appearance. It affects all asclepias.

The monarchs are unaffected and have laid eggs and eaten the plants but they are so tiny that it doesn’t go far.

The only treatment is to dig up any infected plant, including the roots and burn or plastic bag rot (don’t compost) for disposal.

Picture 1: shows a bunny eaten uninfected volunteer plant right beside an infected one.

Picture 2: shows on the left infected swamp milkweed plant and a normal one on the right.

Picture 3: shows a small infected clump. This is no more than 8” tall but has been growing all season.

Picture 4: shows bushy infected clumps mixed in with normally growing stalks.

Picture 5: shows the other side of the patch all growing normally, including lighter new growth from cut stalks.

Cluster of larvae on underside of common milkweed leaf. Central Minnesota. Please and thank you. 🙏🏻

I got this milkweed from a nursery months ago (different from the other 3 that I have). Within 2 weeks of bringing her home she completely died and has come back to life! However, I noticed few of the leaves have this almost powdery look to them. I haven’t seen this in my other milkweed, so curious to know if this is “okay” or if it signifies there’s rot in the soil.. any advise would be great, thanks!

Ten milkweed tussock caterpillars are on this single leaf on one of my massive milkweed plants. Clearly this is the very best leaf.