@DavidLMO and @gingin - sorry I've been so pokey about responding. Haven't been on ATP/NGA for awhile. Being a slacker keeps me incredibly busy.

The seeds that I have are from Asclepias curassavica (tropical milkweed) and A.curassavica (tropical milkweed ‘silky gold’).

As I was collecting the seeds (a funny thing to try), I might have mixed the 2 together, I know at one point my packets were correctly labeled but I do think that later they might be mixed. Shouldn't matter as far as growing them. In fact, to my surprise being new at growing milkweed, my plants all came back this year. I even saw 2 'cats' on one of them 2 nights ago.

After a slow start in the Dallas area, suddenly everyone is seeing lots of them. Forecast for tonight is 39F. Hope all the little guys make it, assuming forecast is correct.

Almost forgot. I do have some seeds that were given to me. I've got some A. Incarnata (swamp milkweed), A. Tuberosa (butterfly weed), and a really big packet of NOIDs b/c my friend forgot to label it. Very unlike her. She has a collection of seeds she gathered from at least 700 different plants (flowers and veggies and who knows what).

So . . . send me a tree mail if you want any of these. Tell me which types (as many as you want) and I will need your address, etc.

"Asclepias curassavica (tropical milkweed) and A.curassavica (tropical milkweed ‘silky gold’). "

Same plant but regular Tropical has Yellow (gold) and red coloration flowers and Silky gold (yellow) has pure yellow (gold) flowers.

They are not hardy much North of your zone.

Thanks for the offer, but I have plenty of plants and seeds of both. The plants were cut back and potted and in my garage. As are the cuttings from them in a bucket of water. I also have plenty of butterfly weed and Swamp.

Thank you though.

DavidLMO said:"Asclepias curassavica (tropical milkweed) and A.curassavica (tropical milkweed ‘silky gold’). "

The plants were cut back and potted and in my garage. As are the cuttings from them in a bucket of water. I also have plenty of butterfly weed and Swamp.

Thank you though.

David, do they root easily from cuttings? Or did you dig them up to pot? I'm so funny, I don't yet have a single plant and already, I'm thinking about cuttings and potting!

When I volunteered at the butterfly garden at MOSI, we would cut stems for the caterpillars to eat in the tanks. (We kept them in water in little yogurt cups and such.) When the cats stripped the leaves off, we would take the stems and put them in a bucket of water. We had one lady who specialized in replanting the stems. I don't know about other species, but the Tropical Milkweed is really easy to root from cuttings.

joannakat said:

David, do they root easily from cuttings? Or did you dig them up to pot? I'm so funny, I don't yet have a single plant and already, I'm thinking about cuttings and potting!

Tropical roots really easily. For me, usually in a couple of weeks.

I cut the plant down to ~ 2 - 4 inches and all the cuttings were placed a bucket with water. Each plant can give 10 - 20 cuttings. Then I dug up and potted the plants. I set very few seeds this year, but collected what I could. I left all seed pods on the cuttings as they will often finich in the bucket of water. Got some seeds today.

It is always best to think ahead. I have already started visualizing my new beds next year.

Will be starting seeds in my basement grow area in a couple of months. Nov & Dec is kinda blah, but I have hundreds and hundreds of plants brought in to care for. That for me is a big challenge as I am not the best with indoor watering. Last year I killed several plants including an Adenium and Boganvilla.

DavidLMO said:

That for me is a big challenge as I am not the best with indoor watering. Last year I killed several plants including an Adenium and Boganvilla.

A little OT, but have you considered a drip irrigation system? You can feed the small tubes into the pots and connect the line to one faucet. You can set it on a timer, or can turn it on and off manually. Then all you have to do is check from time to time.

I grew sandhill milkweed indoors on a heated seed tray on a window seat and they survived the winter. This winter I'm growing zizotes milkweed in a heated seed tray. They seem to be doing well so far.