In the Garden: Celebrate the Year of the Asclepias by planting milkweed
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Grow milkweed (Asclepias) to support monarch butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees while adding color, fragrance, and beauty to your landscape. You’ll find native milkweeds throughout North and South America. In recognition of this garden star’s attributes, 2025 has been deemed the Year of the Asclepias by the National Garden Bureau.
With so many to choose from, select the milkweed that is best suited to the growing conditions, your landscape design, and garden maintenance. Some milkweeds are very aggressive and can quickly take over garden beds and large areas in the landscape, requiring time and effort to maintain their spread.
Butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) is one of the tamer milkweeds with lots of ornamental appeal. This adaptable milkweed is hardy in zones three to ten and was named the 2017 Perennial Plant of the Year.
Grow butterfly milkweed in full sun with well-drained soil. You’ll appreciate its drought tolerance once it’s established. If you are gardening in clay soil, consider growing Asclepias tuberosa var. clay, a natural variant found growing on clay soil. Mark the location of any butterfly milkweed in the garden or plant some spring flowering bulbs nearby to avoid accidentally digging up this late-to-emerge perennial.
You’ll enjoy the orange blossoms in meadow, prairie, and even semi-formal gardens. Combine this beauty with yellow, purple, and blue flowers. Deadhead faded flowers to extend bloom time and prevent reseeding if this is a concern.
When looking for a bit larger plant that tolerates moist to wet and occasionally dry soils, check out red milkweed (Syriaca incarnata), also known as pink and swamp milkweed. You’ll enjoy the fragrant reddish-pink flowers and the butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds that visit the flowers.
It’s hardy in zones three to nine plus red milkweed grows three to five feet tall in upright clumps. The flowers are followed by narrow pods that release silky-haired seeds like other milkweeds. It grows best in full sun with moist soil and is less aggressive than common milkweed. Grow this milkweed in sunny mixed borders, natural gardens, rain gardens, and alongside ponds. And best of all, the deer and rabbits tend to leave it, and other milkweeds, be.
Common milkweed Asclepias syriaca is a favorite of monarchs, hardy in zones three to eight, but very aggressive, spreading by deep rhizomes and seeds. The purple-pink flowers are fragrant at night, and you will find a variety of butterflies stopping by for a visit. Keep it contained by persistently removing unwanted suckers and seedpods before they open to prevent reseeding.
Sullivant’s milkweed Asclepias sullivantii is similar but a bit less aggressive. It has the same great butterfly appeal and is hardy in zones four to seven.
These are just a few of the more than 100 native milkweed species, many of which you may want to add to your gardens. You can find out more about the species native to your region in the Milkweed Regional Guides located on the Xerces Society website. You are sure to find one or more to add to your garden beds.
Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” instant video and DVD series and the nationally-syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and her website is MelindaMyers.com.
