Dave, I appreciate what you're trying to do for the butterflies. Milkweeds in general are notoriously hard to transplant from the wild. The taproots are usually deep. We don't have A. tuberosa growing around here, but I've read can be hard to transplant. If you try it, wait until the weather is cool, find smaller plants and dig deep enough to get enough of the roots. Get it into a pot and watered right away. Shade helps until it recovers. We have one species of milkweed here that isn't very hard to move, but that's not the norm for the species. We're hoping for the best for the Monarchs (and the Queens also), but things are not going well for them.
