by Lindsay Bond Totten
Scripps Howard News Service
If gardeners are ever to embrace them, the milkweeds will definitely have to submit to a serious image makeover.
It's their only hope.
First, the name. The "weed" part has to go. Let's see ... milk-stem, milk-flower, milk-wort. How about milk-"star," for the way the blooms sparkle above the 2-foot-high foliage like a miniature fireworks display?
A change of venue, from "roadside weed" to "native perennial" would position them favorably to catch the current wave of enthusiasm for native plants. Throw in "butterfly magnet" and imagine what a clever spinmeister could do with this much raw material!
Hey, it worked for prunes, er, pardon me ... dried plums. Surely it could work for milkweeds!
The genus Asclepias includes some of our most interesting and ecologically useful native plants. I look forward each July to the brilliant splashes of orange butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) that dot our open fields and meadows across western Pennsylvania. In low-lying areas, it's just as delightful while on a summer hike to encounter a small colony of swamp milkweed (A. incarnata), with its delicate pink-and-white blooms.
And when the seed pods of common milkweed (A. syriaca) split open in fall, what child can resist releasing a handful of the soft silky fibers inside; what scout leader can ignore the craft potential of those dried pods spray-painted gold?
More practically speaking, monarch butterflies depend on milkweed for their very existence. The larvae feed almost exclusively on milkweed foliage. Toxic compounds in the sticky white sap render the brilliantly striped caterpillars poisonous to predators.
Many more species of beneficial bees, moths and pollinating flies find the sweet nectar irresistible. But "useful" and "ecological" don't cut much mustard with gardeners, who display stubborn tendencies to favor perennials--native or otherwise--with ornamental qualities.
Milkweed can accommodate the most discriminating tastes. Transplanted to the garden--I'm speaking figuratively here, don't dig wild plants from the fields--orange butterfly weed is a spectacular addition to the summer border.
It's slow to get started, but ultimately easy to grow, as underground rhizomes spread gradually to form compact clumps. The saturated tones blend splendidly with ornamental grasses, raucous-colored daylilies or demure daisies.
Some years, orange butterfly weed will boom in concert with the second flush of color from perennial salvia "May Night." Or, tone it down with the gentler blue of anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum "Blue Fortune"). Charming.
Named varieties of Asclepias tuberosa have just started to appear in mainstream seed catalogs. "Gay Butterflies" is a brilliant mixture of red, orange and yellow blooms. Plants are tough, hardy and exceptionally drought-tolerant, for a sizzling display even during dry summers.
Starting asclepias from seed is a long-term commitment, since it can takes plants up to three years to mature. Buy transplants if you're in a hurry.
Closely related to orange butterfly weed is a tropical nonnative milkweed called bloodflower (A. curassavica). These tall, brightly hued annual milkweeds start blooming in my garden in midsummer and continue till frost. A bit of chewed foliage reveals the presence of a monarch caterpillar under one leaf, but I'm happy to share and delighted when it decides to build a cocoon there.
One word of caution about bloodflower: Be sure to remove the ripening seed pods or the seedlings will be everywhere next season.
Bloodflower looks absolutely regal when planted in a drift next to a standard-sized butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii). Choose any color of Buddleia but pink to go with the orange and yellow milkweed flowers.
Gardeners don't need a bog to succeed with swamp milkweed; it will gladly accept regular garden soil that stays moderately moist. But if you do own a wetland, this is a sturdy and beautiful perennial that you'll love to grow, and definitely grow to love.
Stems are 3 feet tall and bear bursts of bicolor blooms--gentle pink and white, not screaming orange--that look great next to sedges, water iris, swamp azaleas or sweet pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia). "Ice Ballet" is an all-white selection of our native species.
Asclepias incarnata grows more quickly from seed than other varieties. Seeds started in spring should be ready for the garden by late summer and bloom the following year.
(Lindsay Bond Totten, a horticulturist, writes about gardening for Scripps Howard News Service.)
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