You can transplant it, if you do want milkweed growing somewhere on your property. It's probalby from a root runner that the original plant sent out. You'll have to baby it for a while, but then you'll have milkweed for the monarchs. If you keep taking out the sprouts as they come up, eventually it will die out. Of course there's always some sort of herbacide you could use.

Hi mauch...I don't have a use for it. I have already planted a border using Cinderella and Ice Ballet Asclepias with Joe Pye Weed for the butterflies. I just need to get this one out of the bed it is coming up in. I will try that idea of just
pulling off the sprouts and see if that will kill it off. Organic grower here,so the herbicide is out.

Thanks very much... :-)
pm2

Although suggesting killing off milkweed, wild or not, makes me squeamish (there's nowhere you can put it?), you could suffocate it too--put some cardboard and mulch over it if you don't want to dig it up because it would upset the root systems of your other plants.

Hi Prairiemoon, I happened upon this while doing a search. I have to tell you that I have the same problem! I have tons of A. tuberosa, A. incarnata, A. purpurascens & A. curassivica growing for Monarchs, so I do not want or need it growing in my front entry border where it has decided it wants to grow! And can I just tell you that yanking them seems to make them spread more! I started with 2 now I have at least 7 sprouting up. I even resorted to trying an organic herbicide on them and they died and just grew back a couple inches over! The roots on these things can span your whole yard! I know because I tried to dig some up when I first moved here, to move so my husband wouldn't mow them down. They have actually sprouted in the cracks of our walkway, I think they're roots are under the cememt slab,so there is no way to get them all! I am all for growing tons of milkweed, but not the A. syriaca! I don't even think it is native, it is a naturalized plant. Quote: "Several European weeds are toxic to cattle if eaten in large quantities, and when these plants become abundant in pastures they represent a significant management problem and economic loss. Some examples of toxic introduced weeds of pastures in North America are common St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum), ragwort (Senecio jacobaea), and common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)."

Here is a link that might be useful: This is where I got the quote.

A. syriaca is native to the U.S. Now whether it is native in your state, I don't know. A. curassavica is not native. Try using vinegar to kill it. That's the most organic method I've heard from others.

Susan

ill take it, im raising monarchs

Thank you all for the help.

Flutterbug, I think you are right. I have been pulling it and the more I pull the more the sprouts keep coming up. I think I will try smothering it, as I had to do with another weed I had once.

I'll also try the vinegar Susan, which I have tried in other situations with mixed results. I don't however, see how killing it with vinegar and pulling the sprouts would have a different result from each other. It would seem that killing or removing the sprouts may be an indicator to the root system to push out a new spurt of growth in a different direction.

I didn't realize they would present this problem when I planted the other named varieties I have and hope that they won't become a problem.

Brnegrrl....I am not quite sure how to interpret your statement that pulling milkweed makes you uncomfortable. I am guessing that you would like to see milkweed grow as much as possible to provide food for butterflies. Naturally, that was the reason I planted them in the first place. I just looked up the Asclepias incarnata and it is reported to be ..'a clump former that does not spread by runner like some of it's cousins.'

I was out looking at the three Asclepias incarnata that I planted last year and they have come up in the same place on the same plant that went in the ground last year and have not spread or come up in a different location. The plant I am having trouble with is something that evidently came in on the wind or with a bird and hid out behind my hose reel until it was quite large last year and that is the one I am trying to get rid of. It must be the runner cousin. So I will keep the incarnata that clumps as I continue to get rid of the other.

I had a ton of monarchs last year, which were all over my Butterfly Bush, which isnt even a native.

Thanks... :-)

Prairiemoon2,
Here's my sure-fire way to rid yourself of this invader, decide that you REALLY want to keep it, tell it so every time you go by it. Not in the perfect place? Rearrange everything to revolve around it. Then just to spite you, it will up and die!! This really did happen to me!!LOL!!
-B
P.S. I really did want that plant to live...

Brandy...lol...thanks, I needed a good laugh! I will have to give that a try. That should work for me. [g] What plant was it that you tried to hang onto?

pm2

Which time, pm2?
Once it was lupines-ordered some from a catalog AND tried starting from seed. Just couldn't get them to stick around that year!! I now have one that's 3yrs old but still on a pot 'cause I'm afraid to touch it!! Thanks to wintersowing I have about 10 baby ones waiting to test me! I've also had trouble with morning glories and nasturniums....maybe a phobia of big seeds???
-B

Hi Prairiemoon2--You interpreted correctly...sorry! I understand needing to get the milkweed out as I spent some time this morning trying to get sheep sorrel out of one of my gardens and beating myself up about it because it's a host plant for American Coppers, but I need room for my other butterfly plants.

Last year sheep sorrel tested my dedication to organic gardening!

Take care.

brandy, I also had trouble with lupines the first time I tried them, but a couple of years ago I wintersowed some and they bloomed last year and this year, I have self sown seedlings near last year's plants. So, I don't think I will have trouble with those now. My problem is not usually keeping plants going, but in having too many and trying to put too many in my beds. [g]

Berne...I hear ya! I have been organic for 30 years and persistent weeds are the most trying, I do believe. We had quack grass. Finally got rid of it smothering it with cardboard and mulch and not watering all summer two years ago when we had drought. We had to cover a very large area to get rid of it.

Good luck with your growing seasons... :-) pm2

If anyone has any wild Milkweeds growing everywhere that you do not want I want them. Even if they are small plants or bare roots. I am interested in them because I have an acre backyard and am interested in Milkweeds. I am interested in all the wild ones but not Asclepias Curassavica. I already have that one.

If anyone has any wild Milkweeds growing everywhere that you do not want I want them. Even if they are small plants or bare roots. I am interested in them because I have an acre backyard and am interested in Milkweeds. I am interested in all the wild ones but not Asclepias Curassavica. I already have that one. So if anyone has just a lot of Milkweeds that they want to get rid of send me an e-mail :-)