_edited.jpg)
Swamp milkweed, Asclepias incarnata
Swamp milkweed is a versatile, easy-to-grow plant that is elegant, beautiful, and, at the same time, an ecological powerhouse.
Pink-purple flowers bloom from June to August and produce a beautiful vanilla-like fragrance. This milkweed grows to a medium height of 60 cm to 1.20 m tall and wide and doesn't spread through rhizomes as common milkweed. So it is a very well-behaved plant, even great for small gardens.
Milkweed is deer and rabbit-resistant because its white sap contains cardiac glycosides, which are toxic if consumed in large quantities.
It is a beautiful spectacle when the seed pods burst open in late summer to release their seeds on silken floss, glittering in the sun and carried away by the wind.
Ecology:
The gorgeous flowers attract many butterflies, bees, and a huge variety of other insects with their nectar. Milkweed is the only larval host plant for the endangered monarch butterfly, meaning monarch caterpillars can only eat milkweed. Thus, it is a staple plant for any pollinator garden.
All milkweeds are susceptible to orange oleander aphids (Aphis nerii) when the soil is nitrogen-rich. The plants grow too fast, so the epidermis, the protective layer of the plant, becomes thin, and aphids can access the plant's sap more easily. In a natural garden, predatory insects like ladybugs, tiny parasitic wasps, hoverfly larvae and many more profit from aphids and create a whole food web around aphids. And let's don't forget ruby-crowned kinglets, chickadees and even wood peckers who love an ahipd snack.
Goldfinches are part of a tiny group of birds that can raise their young by feeding on seeds rather than insects. Breeding and nest-building occur exactly when milkweed pods split open, and goldfinches use the soft, water-repellent floss to line their nests.
Growing conditions:
Swamp milkweed grows best in full sun to partial shade. In the wild, it grows in wetlands, swamps, marshes, and along streams. Thus, it is an ideal plant for rain gardens and bioswales, close to downspouts and other wet areas in your garden. But swamp milkweed also does very well in regular garden conditions if you can provide some watering in the driest times.
Swamp Milkweed
60 cm -
1.20 m
great pollinator vanilla frangrance sun - part sun host plant rain garden loam to heavy clay nesting material deer resistant medium to wet bird seed easy to grow .
Garden symphony:
New research found that milkweed should be planted around the perimeter of a flowerbed instead of inside it to increase the survival rate of monarch caterpillars.
Besides milkweed, which supports the caterpillar stage of monarchs, adult monarch butterflies need good nectar plants. In my garden, these are their favourites: blazing star, cup plant and other sunflowers, joe pye weed, button bush and (pale) purple coneflower. In the fall, goldenrods, New England aster and ironweed provide rich nectar to fatten the monarchs up for migrating to Mexico.
I avoid growing plants that attract predatory insects near milkweed, such as common boneset and mountain mints, to give the caterpillars a better chance of survival.