I just got home last night from a trip to Texas. (was delayed there about 3 weeks because the Coronavirus thing) I bought a few small tropical milkweed plants while I was there; also I have some swamp milkweed seedlings up. And lots more seeds in the fridge here to plant this weekend, but anyway... I looked the milkweeds over before I bought them to make sure they didn't have eggs, but I must have missed one. Or a mama monarch found my plants while they were outside.

I wish I'd known I had a stowaway; I saw some wild milkweed growing along I-45 in a safe place near Normangee, TX and could have transferred him to it. But I didn't find it until I got home. It's over an inch long; what is that, instar 4? The migratory monarchs aren't due here for about 5 weeks. I have enough milkweed to feed this one (that's not what it was for, but the MW will recover.) Can I put the crysalis in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks to delay its development without hurting it? That way, I can release the adult in mid-late-May when the first of the migration gets here. Otherwise, it will emerge in early May while it's still a little too cold and there's no flower or mates.

I guess I could also take the butterfly to a garden center that has a greenhouse; see if they want it. Thanks.

By all means take it to a greenhouse if you can. Re tropical milkweeds, there is some concern about toxicity for Monarchs, you will need to look this up. Far better to grow the native ones, and there are lots to choose from, not just the bright orange one!

gardenfish said:By all means take it to a greenhouse if you can. Re tropical milkweeds, there is some concern about toxicity for Monarchs, you will need to look this up. Far better to grow the native ones, and there are lots to choose from, not just the bright orange one!

I grow mostly native milkweeds; about a half dozen different kinds. But I get more monarchs by mixing in a few non-natives as well (Mexican butterflyweed and asclepias gomphocarpus) There's no danger because the non-natives cannot survive the winters here to buildup levels of OE. The cats eat them all, except they don't really like the A. tuberosa (the adults like those)

That's good, I didn't think about how much colder you are! It's not supposed to survive the winter here but it has been, our winters are so much milder than they used to be. Climate change! Have you seen the bright yellow one? It grows well here, We have it in an MG project out by the lake. I'm ordering one for myself. I think the names hello yellow. Which native ones do you have?

Mostly swamp milkweed and honey vine (Cynanchum laeve), but I also have some common mw, and I've started some patches of showy mw and poke mw but don't know if those will come back. I have more poke mw and whorlled mw seeds stratifying in the fridge; it's about time to plant them. I think that's all of 'em Almost forgot about the orange butterflyweed (A. tuberosa), that's a native here and I have one big clump of that too.

If your tropical milkweed is perennial there, just cut it down in the late fall when the swamp milkweeds die back.

That's what's so weird about it sometimes it is sometimes it isn't. I had a swamp but it died. I have the orange. I'm going to buy the hello yellow, I think. I do like the look of the whirled.