is that a rhetorical question?

If not...We keep all our common milkweed on one side of the house, away from the rest of the garden. This makes it easier control the seeding.

Even then, I probably puck milkweed plants from the lawn almost daily in the summer. You have to get them right away because the monarchs love laying eggs on the baby plants.

Wow Robin.....that's a really healthy stand!

Beautiful patch of Asclepias syriaca!! I would love to have it...

I suppose it might be too much if it's spreading into your veggie garden or something. :)

I've given up on it - it's way too invasive for a home garden. Swamp milkweed is my favorite perennial type.

hello
how do you get your milkweed looking so good, we have a wild patch in our new yard and they got looking rilly bad, bugs falling over, bad spots.
how do you care for it?
michelle

Hi michelle,
our common milkweed looks that good into August, and then it starts down the fast path to hideousness!

That's another reason to keep it in it's own spot! I absolutely love AS though and wouldn't trade it for anything. The flowers are so fragrant and attract multiple types of butterflies! Monarchs lay eggs all over it too.

hello
OK. I had been wondering if cutting them back a bit after they bloom would help, I may try that since they seem to like the new leafs better.
I got a first hand look at what a tussik moth can do to one, we saw a 5 ft tall MW become a stick in just 2 days. next time I will get rid of most of them, not all though, there is a space for everyone.
thanks
michelle

What a beautiful stand of AS. It is my ambition this year to establish big stands of it on less developed parts of my property. It is the preferred food for MBs around here, and I find myself sometimes driving winding roads trying to find it for late season cats. I would love to have my own stand! Any tips about getting it started? I've had terrible luck with it in the past.

Tussock moths - boo! hiss! I tolerated them the first year because I was naive, and they stripped all my milkweed, leading to panic for food supply for my MB cats. Zero tolerance for MTMs now. They are so destructive.