Milkweeds are tap rooted and resent disturbances.

I don't know if it is illegal to dig them up, but that land alongside the road belongs to somebody and that somebody who owns it does pay taxes on it and maintains it. (Granted, some people don't maintain their bar ditches and never mow them, but we mow ours after the flowers have finished blooming and have time to set seed for next year's plants.)

As a rural landowner, it makes me angry when people stop and dig up or pull or cut flowers that I have planted in our bar ditch or even in our front pasture. I believe the ethical thing to do is to buy the plants, buy seed and raise them or, at least seek permission from the landowner before you take something from their property. If you cannot locate a landowner, then I wouldn't take anything off that property without permission. It might seem like it is just a bar ditch, but some of us have gone to a lot of trouble to replace the weedy grasses in our bar ditches with wildflowers for the butterflies, bees and other creatures, and just because the flowers are growing near the roadway doesn't mean they are "free" for anyone who comes driving up the road and wants to take them.

Sorie, you can get free seeds for milkweed. If you will remind me in late summer, I can save you some seeds as well.

Lisa

Here is a link that might be useful: Live Monarch

Are you talking about the orange flowering milkweed or the pink flowering. The orange ones are really hard to dig up. I have tried to dig them up on my hill and since I have rocks it was nearly impossible. I have seen those called butterfly weed for sale in garden centers. The pink I have spreads I guess by runners. I planted that from seed. It is a little invasive but I don't mind; where I put it is weedy and it can battle the weeds. There was some growing wild on my driveway also. I have not tried to dig up the pink. My pink is blooming now so I will also have seeds later. The orange butterfly weed is a better plant for a border. The pink will take over less vigorous plants and needs a spot on its own.

This post was edited by helenh on Sat, Jun 14, 14 at 9:00

Thank you, lisa h for the link. Is it too late to plant milkweed seeds? It looks like the site is out of plants. When should they be planted? I guess full sunlight?

Thanks. lisa_h I'll try to remember to remind you! LOL
Dawn I would never dig without asking first. I didn't know the ditches belonged to property owners. I thought they were state owned. I thought the state had easements. If it's state owned we all pay taxes on it but I still wouldn't dig w/o asking. I even thought about asking a hiway patrol but of course didn't see one.

Technically there are utility easements alongside most if not all roadways. In our county they go back 25' from the road, and it essentially means it is our land (and we are taxed on it) but the utility companies can use it. The county is supposed to mow the land alongside the roadway (our road is a county road, the state only mows along state and federal highways), but they only do it a couple of times a year (for budgetary reasons, which I totally understand), so most landowners around us mow and edge their own, just like we do. Even when the local electric co-op is going to be on our land working to clear undergrowth beneath the utility lines, the guy in charge of that always stops by and makes sure it is okay with us before they start. I always tell them to feel free to do whatever they have to do. He also clears the cutting or removal of any trees in the easement, which he really doesn't have to do. They can cut whatever they need to in order to maintain the utility lines, but it is nice that he asks if it is okay or if I am sentimentally attached to those trees.

When people stop and admire the wildflowers and ask if they can come back and collect seeds later, I always tell them that they can. I just prefer that people take the time to do it properly by asking permission before they do it.

I just didn't know when we moved to the county how many people think that if they see a plant or anything else they want "growing in the country", they can just take it, or if they see fruit, berries or nuts on trees or brambles on your property they can just pull off the road and help themselves to whatever they want. I could tell you stories that would curl your toes. I was shocked the first time I found strangers helping themselves to plants on our land. It is a pet peeve of mine that rural landowners find people, generally strangers, on their property picking berries, gathering pecans, or whatever.....

And, this is the wrong time of the year to dig anything, even with permission. Plants dug up in June, July or August have a very low survival rate. Our summer weather is just too brutally hot and often too dry as well.

I first raised both the orange and pink-flowered milkweeds from seed sown here a couple of years after we moved here. They usually last a few years but eventually a really bad drought kills them. We have the native green milkweed that pops up here and there in pastures, and we just mow around it and let it stand for the butterflies. (It took me a while to train Tim to mow around wildflowers, but he does it now.)

Sometimes I get the last laugh. A couple of years ago a bunch of teenagers kept stopping and picking the poppies while they were in bloom. If I walked out the door of the house while they were down there picking them alongside the roadway, they drove off immediately at a very high rate of speed. I am pretty sure they didn't want the poppies for the flowers.....but I don't grow opium poppies, so I doubt those seed pods of the corn poppies and Oriental poppies did anything for them.

Dawn

Reminds me of a story my mother in law. She was the sweetest, kindest and most law abiding woman you can EVER imagine!!!! 70 years ago she moved from the Duncan, Oklahoma area to Stephenville, Tx. In the spring time she saw the prettiest little blue flower along the highway. As it was her turn to have the Southern Baptist women to her house she wanted the perfect decoration so she went to a close roadway and picked some of these "really pretty blue flowers". She noticed people honked but thought they were friendly Texans. She lovingly placed them in little jars all over her little house. She thought everything looked just perfect. To her horror when the church ladies arrived she discovered she'd broken state law (or at least state tradition at that time) and was picking not just "pretty little blue flowers" but the state flower of Texas, the blue bonnet!!!!

Our property is, basically in the shape of a right triangle. It comes to a point at the back end and joins the city's easement. The property on the right is a lot where we are free to clear the dead trees and limbs. (We burn wood for heat.) He's given us permission to trespass, basically. I often visit foraging for cuttings of willow and flower and weeds for the bunnies. The other neighbor absolutely abhors my behavior and is clueless to the arrangement. A couple years ago when I took willow cuttings she was enraged and tried to call out to me. This is not even on her property. Soon after the city came out and cleared this area and the willow. It sits atop a drain which badly needed the clearing. I just giggled knowing the willow would grow back and laugh at the lady's inability to mind her own business. Yeah, she "got" me. Oh, yeah. Right. This year the willow was in absolute perfect growth. It needed to be coppiced. ha! (I make my own rooting hormone.) I'm in the process of potting up some of that willow.

And in all this my yard is in complete view of these barbarians. I'm needing some wind breaks and have decided to weave something into the chain linked fence and that will also give some privacy for a change.

I would plant them in full sunlight, and a well drained spot.

My first recommendation would be to winter sow the seeds, but since that time has come and gone, I would definitely try to grow them now.

Here is a link that might be useful: Propagating Milkweed / Monarch Watch

I was given some milk weed seeds, my instructions say to plant them in the fall.

Gasps How gorgeous is that? I've been growing Milkweed since spring. They really aren't growing well, but they look okay at about 4" tall. It's really hard to keep spider mites off them.

It would be hard to protect them because they are very very buggy plants. I went out last night and at night they are covered with moths. Anything to kill spider mites would kill other insects. My patch looks good now but sometimes the plants get very ratty looking. There were lots of black butterflies too but they were too fast for me.