ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. We explore this world of long, vining plants and how they can be grown to produce edible harvests in your garden! Posted by: Christine - Douglas county on: 2017-08-01 12:58:02. Heres How To Handle Them, 40 Different Types of Radishes to Grow This Season, Scabiosa: How to Grow and Care For Pincushion Flowers, How to Plant Grow and Care For Elephant Bush, How and When to Fertilize Your Vegetable Garden. Milkweed is the onlygame in town for hungry monarch butterfly caterpillars. 75 52 My sunflowers are being eaten by finchesthey eat the leavesI have tried CDs and a large flower windmill. I have always enjoyed providing milkweed for my favorite butterfly, the majestic Monarch. For propagating by seed: No treatment. Common milkweed prefers full sunlight. Although milkweed will do fine in partial shade, more sun will encourage the most productive flowering, and monarchs use the suns energy to warm up. I live in Central Florida and butterflies havent touched my milkweed! If theyre not blooming flowers the year you planted them, they likely will be next year. Verbena grows up to 6 tall and branches into spiky purple prongs. They store the milkweeds toxins away in a special organ that they carry through every phase of their lives to protect themselves from predators. They give way to smooth seed pods in the fall, which look great in dried flower arrangements. Plants in the milkweed family are the single most important source of food for the threatened monarch butterfly, and planting a patch or two in your landscape is an important contribution to the continued existence of the species. Snails and slugs also love young tender milkweed plants. Best Companion Plants for Milkweed Verbena Bonariensis Verbena Bonariensis is a tall, spiky purple flower that can grow up to 6 tall. If plants are overcrowded, remove some to increase airflow so diseases cant spread as quickly. They are rather like the seeds of dandelions in this regard. Home > Milkweed (all) for California - Calscape Other plants for milkweed : r/gardening - Reddit Milkweed's leaves and the milk-like substance within are poisonous, except to monarch butterflies. Irrigated . Asclepias fascicularis "Narrow Leaved Milkweed" - Annie's Annuals ECOLIFE recently launched our Milkweed for Monarch program to create more monarch-friendly habitat across California. You can prevent fungal infections by only watering when the soil is dry and only watering at the base of the plant.