One way that I gauge how much moisture a plant may need is to research the wetland status of the plant. The USDA plants database and other websites report a "Wetland indicator status" that tells you whether a plant grows in wetlands in its natural habitat. Asclepias incarnata (Swamp milkweed) is an "obligate wetland" plant which means it always grows in wetlands in the wild, so this is a moisture-loving milkweed. In my gardens it grows reasonably well in medium moisture, and is surprisingly drought tolerant, but it does die back in late summer and I wonder if it would last longer in a wetter garden. Many if not most of the other milkweeds are well adapted to dry conditions, including A. syriaca (common) and A. tuberosa (butterfly weed). For Joe-Pye weed, it depends on the species but many of them also prefer to grow in wetlands. You might look into Eupatorium purpureum, Sweet Joe Pye weed, or Ageratina altissima (former Eupatorium rugosum, Snakeroot) both of which will grow more happily in drier soil. Most Phlox and Monardas will do well in medium moisture. Last year I grew Monarda punctata (Spotted bee balm) and M. citriodora (Lemon bee balm) from seed, and they are both very pretty and prefer dry sandy soil. Many Aster and Solidago (Goldenrod) species are very drought-tolerant, gorgeous late bloomers, and mine had lots of pollinators all over them in September and October.

I'm glad you finally got a decent rain, Mike! I got exactly 1.00" in my rain gauge yesterday - I only got 4.10" in April, low for my area, so I was glad to get that inch! Susan, my p. caerulea 'Waterloo Blue' stayed green all winter before last - then it came up all over, like p. incarnata the next spring. Well, this past winter, it all died back, and this spring only a few pieces of it have come up at all - it was colder this past winter than the one before, but it was still a typical Gulf Coast, mild, short winter - I don't get it. I planted one of my 'Lady Margaret' passionvines the other day - it's supposed to be a hybrid of p. incarnata and p. coccinea. It's reported to be good for GFs, and it's leaves look like p. incarnata, so I assume that's why, it's chemically like p. incarnata and doesn't have any rough hairs on the undersides of the leaves. P. coccinea, on the other hand, is supposed to be toxic - I can't say that's true from personal experience, because I've never had any. P. lutea is the little yellow flowering one. I finally found some eggs on it last year, so I brought the early instar cat into a cage to raise myself and fed it nothing but p. lutea - the butterfly turned out exactly the same. I don't know what I expected, that the butterfly would be different because it ate a different type of passiflora when a caterpillar? Hehehe! I wish they'd offer some pearly everlasting here - I love the way those flowers look! They're much prettier than the ones on our cudweed, and the plant hosts ALs. I may order some seeds in the future. MissSherry

Hi Docmom, congrats on your eggs! That is an interesting milkweed, and I don't think it's A. syriaca. Most of the A syriaca I see has fatter leaves, farther apart on the stem, and it doesn't grow in such close groupings (such as astute botanical analysis, huh? lol). I wonder what it is? I actually have 5 small 2nd instar caterpillars myself right now. It is very exciting, since last year I had nary an egg or cat! But a female came through the garden and laid eggs on the A. incarnata seedlings, and one of the small A. syriaca shoots, totally ignoring my larger plants. Yes in my experience they do prefer the smaller plants. I am hoping we will get more Monarch activity in August, and maybe one of these babies will be a female who leaves me lots of eggs?

NC rescue, don't you think that Castilleja may have naturalized along the roadside because the gravel lowers the pH? Many western wildflowers prefer a neutral to alkaline soil. You're in the Piedmont, right-- mostly acid soil? My friend at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk is growing vernonia (ironweed) and Queen Anne's lace. Both will definitely overwinter in z7, even 6. When I lived in southern Ohio the ditch lilies (orange daylilies), chicory, and butterfly weed bloomed together and were followed by vernonia and goldenrod. The county was always wanting to spray or mow our hedgerows but most of us put up signs along our back roads. There never was much development down in our area, most people were deterred by sooo many miles of gravel road to get to the highway!