# Milkweed, swamp milkweed



## Billboard (Dec 28, 2014)

I plan on planting both of these plants in thr fall. How soon do both plants flower and seed? Will they flower the first year? How long for seed pods?


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## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

Milkweed blooms it's first year.


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## Billboard (Dec 28, 2014)

Great, the I presume it just keeps getting bigger and bigger there after?
Thanks tenbears


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## enjambres (Jun 30, 2013)

No, unlike some perennials, I have not observed the individual clumps becoming larger and larger every year. Common milkweed is usually a single stemmed plant. It may spread via roots or stolons underground, and it certainly re-seeds prolifically, but doesn't become bigger like a clump of, say, peonies, or daylillies. The individual stems are certainly taller and sturdier in the second year from seeding. 

However, if the conditions are correct for it, mostly having adequate soil moisture and full sun, it will thrive. 

Swamp milkweed needs an even more moist site, as you might expect from the name. 

Enj.


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## Billboard (Dec 28, 2014)

The ara I'm planting my swamp weed keeps a inch of water from spring till now and then again from October till winter. So there's a month of no water but it is wet about 3 inches down. So it should be good for the swamp milk weed.


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## Cyan (Jan 27, 2015)

This spring, I tried starting milkweed from seed- had no luck with it either in pots or the field. I'm guessing either I had bad seed, or I'm missing a planting technique. I'm going to harvest some wild seed this fall and see if it makes a difference next year.


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## Dandy Lion (Aug 31, 2014)

I was taught that if you pinch common milkweed when its 5 to 6 inches tall, it will encourage bushy growth.



> This spring, I tried starting milkweed from seed- had no luck with it either in pots or the field.


It may come up next spring. I have planted seed a little too late in the spring before and had it come up the next year still. I'm told it requires a period of cold in order to germinate. I either plant mine in the late fall now, or in the early spring when there is still snow on the ground.


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## Billboard (Dec 28, 2014)

The seed needs to go thru stratification.


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## Cyan (Jan 27, 2015)

Billboard said:


> The seed needs to go thru stratification.


I'll try that. That's my foolishness for assuming they were ready to plant. I planted some purple cone flowers (Echinacea) last fall that are now doing great- same thing, needed stratified.


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## spunky (Nov 14, 2006)

This is my first yr with swamp milkweed. Stratified in the fridge for 60 days with wet sand and got about a 30% germ rate. It grew quickly and flowered it first yr. Most are 3 ft tall and branched off a single,woody like stem. It attracted Monarch and Swallowtail butterflies that laid eggs and hatched alot of caterpillars. The caterpillars got eaten by birds; then the yellow aphids moved in droves then some type of lady bugs moved in and ate all the aphids. I now have 2 dozen scraggly, woody weed like plants in my flower garden. The blooms lasted about 6 weeks for me, honey and bumble bees were occasional vistors. The honeybees still preferred the white dutch clover


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