Thanks. -- Lori

I was just thinking if an organizer fertilizer is a little higher in nitrogen than they usually are would encourage more leaves on the milkweed? You know how we are usually told to stay away from high nitrogen fertilizer because it can create too much foliage and not enough blooms--we might want the opposite for some of our milkweed? Maybe putting down some composted manure.

I know someone (Susanlynne and/or MissSherry) swear by composted chicken manure)

I've never seen caterpillars on my milkweed, although I have seen some small missing sections on the leaves. I do get some volunteer milkweeds, but I'll have to check with my SIL to find out whether or not she gets them too (I think my yard has better conditions for swamp milkweed than hers does).

It sounds like my SIL can prune the plants a few weeks before she thinks she'll get caterpillars and the chances are she'll encourage new growth.

I am glad you brought up the idea of pruning the MWs for fresh new growth. I never hear anyone talking about it on BF forums so I sort of had to go by trial and error.

I like to try to keep my Incarnatas in bloom 'til the big onslaught of Monarchs in August and September here in Ohio and it took me a while to put together a strategy that I think might work.

Here's what I try to do with my Milkweeds (incarnatas): I cut back just part of each milk weed plant. Maybe every other stem, or just the back/front of each depending on how it is growing in the garden. I try to leave about a foot of stem or more there, and also try to cut just above a node to try to get a nice branching.

That way I have some of the mature plant growing and also can stimulate new growth and tender leaves. I do this with most of my perennials and I should imagine it would work with your A. incarnata too.

When I did this last time I went ahead and made some rooted cuttings: I took the pruned off parts, trimmed them to a node on the bottom of each stem, left about 5 inches of stem, took off most of the leaves except maybe the top 2, then dipped them into a little Roottone and stuck them into a glass of water and left them on the kitchen counter. Now I have a 10 rooted cuttings growing in the garden. This was easy and a new 'trick' that I was happy to learn about.

I wish we got some of your volunteers you pull for weeds! I never have enough milkweed. It took me a while to figure out how to work with the MWs to get the most out of them here in our growing environment in southwestern Ohio.

-- Lori

(And FYI I am going to try to attend at least part of the Midwest Native Plant/Wildflower conference in a couple of weeks, too, at the Host Hotel in Dayton.)

Thank you for your offer of seeds. I am trying to start some Purple Milkweeds right now, with just a few seedlings popping up so far. Also A. tuberosas from seed (with nothing showing yet).

Lori, I wish my milkweeds would make volunteers (unless they already do and I think they are weeds and unknowingly give them 'The Yank' in the springtime!)

This past year I laid out a new butterfly garden at my sister's home (where she has much more sunshine than we have in our butterfly garden) so it has been fun to grow the host and nectar plants for her family from seeds and cuttings. It takes a quite a bit longer than using 'bought' plants, though, and I'm not sure my patience will hold out! (-:

I really appreciate all the detailed butterfly gardening posts on GW. Lots of good info here!