There was some interest at the seed swap for a Milkweed/Asclepias forum.
Any interest for one?

Milkweed is included in the Gardening for Butterflies, Birds and Bees.

I know it gets mentioned there but this would be specific for just them

@luvsgrtdanes and @plantmanager - I think it would be nice to have a separate forum for Milkweed/Asclepias, although that title would be a little redundant. (oh slap me.)
It would be a good place to learn about the many types of milkweeds, swap seeds, blather on, etc.

So that's my two cents worth.

I can't imagine with over 100 views there haven't been more replies

@luvsgrtdanes - over 100 views? and no one is commenting? just the sound of silence? must be a bunch of looky lous. ( alright. slap me again.)

I know it's tempting if you are a milkweed lover, but my thinking is that it can all be discussed on the present forum threads just fine. There are already 29 different plant forums if I've counted correctly. If every plant group had a forum it would be complicating things unnecessarily.

I don't see how it would complicate things, just don't add it to your watch list if not interested in it

I wasn't thinking about myself in relation to this. I was just thinking about the group in general and about being careful to limit the way the group is growing. It's already a huge and complicated site.

Oh I didn't think that Karen, I was speaking in general too. Although personally speaking I don't find the site complicated at all but rather user friendly and accommodating.

Generally speaking I prefer to not create any forum unless it's going to be highly trafficked and used by a lot of people.

We have forums dedicated to roses, irises, lilies, and daylilies (and others) because there are thousands of cultivars of each, and there's a lot to talk about.

Milkweed is kind of a different kind of plant. There aren't thousands of cultivars and as far as I know there is no breeding work being done or other things to discuss. My concern with creating the forum is that there's not enough to talk about with them, and therefore the forum could become inactive, which looks really bad. There's nothing worse than going into a forum and seeing the most recent post was months ago.

I think it might make more sense to have a forum dedicated to specific plants for butterflies? And milkweed would then be the main topic of that forum?

Thanks @Dave for the input, I do like that idea of one for specific plants, it would be different than the birds and butterfly forum.

As the moderator for the BBB forum, I've been watching the thread without commenting because I'm kind of biased. The BBB forum is properly called "Gardening for Butterflies, Birds, and Bees". We've had threads about milkweed before. Some people are trading, I remember one discussing a new cultivar. These threads don't usually get much activity beyond the first few days, maybe a few weeks. I don't see why a thread about milkweed couldn't fit in either the BBB forum, or even the Wildflowers forum.

As for planting specific plants for butterflies, host plants and nectar plants are talked about all the time, usually in the monthly thread where we share our pictures. I feel like another forum about planting for butterflies would be redundant, and would weaken what I'm trying to do in the BBB forum. I'll link this thread over in the monthly butterfly thread and see if anyone wants to chime in.

mellielong said:As the moderator for the BBB forum, I've been watching the thread without commenting because I'm kind of biased. The BBB forum is properly called "Gardening for Butterflies, Birds, and Bees". We've had threads about milkweed before. Some people are trading, I remember one discussing a new cultivar. These threads don't usually get much activity beyond the first few days, maybe a few weeks. I don't see why a thread about milkweed couldn't fit in either the BBB forum, or even the Wildflowers forum.

As for planting specific plants for butterflies, host plants and nectar plants are talked about all the time, usually in the monthly thread where we share our pictures. I feel like another forum about planting for butterflies would be redundant, and would weaken what I'm trying to do in the BBB forum. I'll link this thread over in the monthly butterfly thread and see if anyone wants to chime in.

Well said, Melanie. I think the discussion of host plants and nectar plants for butterflies absolutely belongs in the BBB forum.

As Dave says, there's just not enough to talk about to warrant a whole new forum either for just milkweed, or for host/nectar plants in general. Forums dedicated to one individual plant almost always either peter out or reduce to one thread that gets sporadic chat. Why not just have one thread with the butterflies?

I've also been watching this discussion and not posting until now.
:iagree: I agree with everything that @mellielong said. The BBB (and/or the wildflowers) is the best place for the milkweed discussions.

I'd love to see a dedicated milkweed thread in the BBB forum (or Wildflowers, wherever they can get more views). Many people on the forum know I ripped out all my Tropical Milkweed a couple of years ago and I'm going all native. It would be great to trade notes on what species actually attract the butterflies, which "swamp" milkweeds can tolerate drier conditions, or just talk about places to buy native milkweeds. I'm glad to see an increased interest in providing milkweed for the Monarchs. It's also a great nectar plant for ALL the butterflies.

I wasn't aware of a wildflower forum, guess I missed it in my search

I also agree with Melanie's post -- I've looked at this thread a couple of times without commenting because I couldn't quite figure out how to phrase my thoughts on the subject. I kind of favor the wildflowers forum for it, but there will most likely continue to be discussions on both BBB and wildflowers regarding milkweed.

I'm glad you posted, Melanie. Something in my mind was thinking about your forum but somehow the neurons didn't fire completely and I missed out on giving the answer you gave, which is the right one.

Let's talk about milkweed in the BBB forum. It's the right place, and will benefit the forum.

In the recent seed swap I dibbed a bunch of different milkweeds so I will be very happy if the conversation can be started. I'll participate if time allows.