Asclepias syriaca

Asclepias syriaca: Butterfly Nursery for the Wild Corner

Common Milkweed is native, fragrant and a little bit wild, with big grey-green leaves and warty pods stuffed with silk. The monarchs love it even more than you will. GIVE IT ROOM AND GET OUT OF THE WAY.

Plant Characteristics:

• Botanical Name: Asclepias syriaca
• Common Name: Common Milkweed
• Height: 90–150 cm (3–5 ft)
• Spread: 60–90 cm (2–3 ft) per clump, spreading by underground roots
• Flowers: Rounded clusters of fragrant, pink to dusty mauve flowers, followed by large, warty pods full of silky seeds
• Bloom Time: Summer (July to September)
• Foliage: Large, broad, grey-green leaves with soft undersides
• Features: Monarch host plant

Where to Plant: Common milkweed spreads by underground roots and seeds, so it's best in meadows, naturalized areas, large pollinator gardens, roadside strips and the back of informal borders. It's not the right choice for a small, tidy bed. It handles poor, dry and clay soils, which makes it handy for the difficult spots on a property.

Companion Plants: Give common milkweed room in a sunny or lightly shaded native meadow bed where it can wander. Arctostaphylos uva-ursi carpets dry ground at 10 to 20 cm with spring flowers and red berries. Coreopsis lanceolata adds golden daisies at 30 to 60 cm from May to July. Symphyotrichum shortii brings pale blue asters at 60 to 90 cm from August to October. Bouteloua gracilis adds blue grama grass at 30 to 60 cm with eyelash-like seed heads.

Plant Care: Plant in full sun or part sun in almost any well-drained soil. Rich soil makes it spread faster, so there's no need to fertilize. Water during the first season; after that it handles drought well. It emerges late in spring. To limit spreading, pull unwanted shoots as they come up, and cut the pods off before they split open if you don't want seedlings. The milky sap is toxic and can irritate skin and eyes, so wear gloves. Cut the stems down in late fall or early spring. Rather than dividing, dig up rooted side shoots in spring if you want to move some.

History: Linnaeus named it syriaca in the 1700s because he mistakenly thought it came from Syria, and during the Second World War its light, silky seed floss was collected to stuff life jackets. Milkweed was long listed as a noxious weed in Ontario, but in 2014 the province moved to remove it from that list because of its importance to monarch butterflies.

Final Thoughts: Plant it in sun where it can do its thing. Deer and drought won't stop it. EVERY MONARCH'S HOMETOWN.