Sarah,

Personally, I do not recommend Miracle-Gro for any plants. They utilize a type of hormone-like chemical whereby your plants become 'addicted' and soon require the stuff in order to continue to thrive. Instead, it is better to use an organic mixture for fertilizer. I know others here use chicken manure and the like. I use a mix including Doctor Earth, Earthworm castings, and a fertilizer I purchase that is made by a company called Grow More. (here's a link http://www.growmore.com/) I also use Super Thrive once in a great while.

I generally apply Miracle-Gro to our milkweed plants, a single application, typically in May, when the plant might be 10 inches or a foot tall. We have both Asclepias tuberosa and Asclepias incarnata. The tuberosa seems to really take off after this treatment. Some of these plants will have about 20 stems, and reach three feet high. I mainly keep Miracle-Gro around for our blueberry shrubs, since it may help them recover from heavy fruit production. It seems to work OK on milkweed, but they also benefit from having a good location, with plenty of sun, and some local weeding.

Hi, thanks for the responses, I must say to tdogmom I also had a shih tzu, we had to put him down in May, he was the best pet we ever had, very loyal, sweet and smart. I too raise monarchs and other butterflies from the caterpillar stage, I can relate to the bathroom nursery, that is exactly where I keep mine! Thanks for the recommendations, I will see what works best, probably planting them in the ground will help a lot, probably better root systen, put out new branches, etc. Ah, almost forgot I have 2 plumerias my brother brought back from Hawaii, I think they have rust, they have orangy powder on underside of leaves, yellow spots on the top, it's also dropping leaves, any help please?? Also, do they grow well in plastic pots? They need to be repotted asap.. Thanks to both of you...

I mostly use Chicken and worm compost from my bins. It's an all purpose very mild fertilizer. Sometimes I use a mixture I make of cottonseed meal, bone and blood (different amounts of each)

I just got home from Japan to sweet rain. Last year was a drought!

Penny