Monarchs-And-Milkweed.com
(Rose Franklin's Perennial & Butterfly Farm)

   Milkweed is the host plant (caterpillar food) for Monarch butterflies. When it's blooming, it is also utilized as a nectar source by many butterfly species, bees, hummingbirds, and more. Here we offer numerous species of milkweed plants that are great for the butterfly garden..
  Among the milkweed plants we offer are Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica), Hairy Balls Milkweed (Asclepias physocarpa), Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriacea), Showy Milkweed (Asclepias speciosa), and Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa). Only occasionally will all of these milkweed species be offered at the same time. Some might only be offered for a month or so during the entire summer.
   To learn more about the Monarch's plight to survive and multiply, please visit our 'Save the Monarch' page. Also  please read "Which Milkweed for the Monarchs?" near the bottom of this page.
   From time to time we will also offer host plants for butterflies other than monarchs. You will find these plants on this page, under the milkweed listings. These plants will be offered sporadically throughout the summer. Most will not be offered all summer long.

Sold Out for 2024.

Giant Swallowtail

We CAN ship plants to the following states within the USA:  Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. State and Federal regulations prohibit us from shipping to other destinations. If you do not live in one of the states we are permitted to ship to, please do not order. We will not ship your order and will charge you a $1.00 service charge to cancel your order and refund your payment.

Perennial, zones 6-8.       $7.00 each 

Black Swallowtail

Sleepy Orange

 Might be available around late June. Please check back then. 

Giant Swallowtail

Black Swallowtail

Variegated Fritillary

Sorry, Sold Out for 2024.

Zebra Swallowtail

Want to learn more about milkweed plants?  
If so, please read our Introduction To Milkweed.

Which Milkweed for the Monarchs?

                                                                                                by Rose Franklin,  January 19, 2015

Americans are worried about the current status of the Monarch butterfly population, and they should be. Monarch numbers have dramatically declined in the past ten years or so. Some entomologists even wonder if the spectacular annual migration to and from Mexico might one day cease to exist. The over-wintering population in Mexico last winter, 2013-2014, was the smallest ever recorded, about 10% of the 20-year average.

Monarch enthusiasts, knowing that Monarchs must have access to milkweed if the population is to increase, are opting to plant milkweed instead of petunias, impatiens, geraniums, and marigolds. But they are confused about which milkweed species they should plant. Some gardeners are told they should only plant the milkweed species that are native to their area while others hear that almost any milkweed, including those that grow in the tropic jungles of the world, like Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica), are suitable hosts for the Monarch.

It was scientists who first began to oppose the planting of Tropical Milkweed. They claimed that because this milkweed species grows year around in some parts of the U.S, it might disrupt the Monarch’s migratory cues in autumn and facilitate in the creation of a large population that does not migrate but, instead, resides year around where Tropical Milkweed grows year around.  And there, where it is not killed off annually by autumn frosts (southern Florida and along the coastal region of the Gulf of Mexico), Tropical Milkweed surely harbors pathogens and facilitates in the increased transmission of disease (especially Oe, Ophryocystis elektroscirrha). Researchers even know that there are, and have been for a number of years, a few small Monarch populations residing year around, and breeding year around, in isolated locations along the Gulf coast.

Migration likely serves several purposes in the well-being of Monarchs. It compels the Monarch to abandon habitat which might be contaminated with pathogens. The long-distance migration also serves to weed out the individuals that are weak and diseased, so that only the healthiest of the population is left to produce offspring the following year.  

Because migration is assuredly advantageous to the health of the Monarch population, I am not comfortable in knowing that even a tiny fragment of the Monarch population has become non-migratory and now breeds year around in a few locations along the southern coast of the U.S. In those areas where Tropical Milkweed does not die in winter, I urge people to refrain from planting it. If it is already planted, I suggest the Tropical Milkweed plants be cut to the ground in autumn and all the debris discarded, thus eliminating the possibility of Monarchs reproducing year around on foliage which might be contaminated with disease. If those residents along the Gulf coast are unwilling or unable to cut their plants to the ground every fall, I advise them to spray their Tropical Milkweed with Roundup, repeatedly until it is completely gone. I don’t generally advocate the use of Roundup, but in this case, I will tolerate its use so that the Monarch will be able to multiply in healthy, disease-free environments.

OK. I agree that in the 2% of the nation where Tropical Milkweed grows year around, it could, and most likely does, harbor and spread disease among the small Monarch population that has chosen to reside and breed there year around. But,  as stated above, this could be prevented if people would cut their Tropical Milkweed plants to the ground every fall. In the other 97% of the U.S. though, I think Tropical Milkweed might well be of benefit to the Monarch, especially at this point in time, when Monarch numbers are swiftly dwindling (though, in my opinion, maybe not any faster than other butterfly species are dwindling in number).  

I do not believe that Monarchs migrating from eastern Canada or the northeastern states of the U.S to Mexico could be persuaded to stay in Pennsylvania or Virginia because they encounter a large stand of Tropical Milkweed growing in a garden. I simply do not believe that. Eastern Monarchs are genetically programmed to make the annual migration to the over-wintering sites in the high-altitude oyamel fir forests in the trans-volcanic mountains of central Mexico. Northeastern Monarchs emerging from pupae between late August and mid-September are in reproductive diapause and thus, not even capable of mating and laying eggs. Probably in response to shorter day length, cooler autumn temperatures, and/or the orientation of the sun, they emerge from their pupae, feed on nectar to store sugar in their bodies, and then automatically begin their long journey south.

I have been an avid butterfly gardener for over twenty years, and I have grown many species of milkweed in my gardens in central Pennsylvania. My advice, at this particular point in time, is to plant whatever milkweed species will aid the Monarch in its quest to survive and multiply.  

Several years ago, I might have agreed with those who advocate the planting of natives only. Today though, with the Monarch numbers at an all-time low, I advocate that we plant whichever milkweed species Monarchs will readily lay eggs on, and/or whatever milkweed species Monarch caterpillars will readily feed on.

Having had many milkweed species our my yard over the past two decades, my husband and I have seen that, consistently from one year to the next, female Monarchs lay more eggs on Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) than they do on any other milkweed species. Annually, we find 300 or more Monarch caterpillars on the hundreds of milkweed plants growing on our property. At least 70% of those are found feeding on the Tropical Milkweed, not the Pennsylvania native Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), or Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa).

Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica), also known as Bloodflower, grows 36” to 48” high, generally blooms from mid-July through frost, and prefers full sun. It is native to tropical South America, Mexico, Central America, and a few torrid islands in the Caribbean and thus, must be treated as an annual in most of the U.S. Tropical Milkweed produces clusters of tiny, star-shaped flowers which might be yellow, yellow/orange, or red/orange bi-colors.

I have to assume that female Monarchs know what they are doing in choosing Tropical Milkweed for the laying of their eggs. If they intrinsically choose to lay eggs on Tropical Milkweed, even when a number of native species are available to them, they must have innate reasoning for doing so. Monarchs are genetically programmed to halt reproduction in fall, inherently wired to make the annual migration to and from Mexico, and I think, innately programmed to know which milkweed species is best suited for their offspring to consume. Maybe Tropical Milkweed is more nutritious than native milkweeds, maybe it has a higher amount of cardenolides in it, which, once consumed by the caterpillars, serve to make both the caterpillars and the adult butterflies toxic to birds.

Andy, my husband, and I offer a huge buffet of milkweeds to the Monarchs that visit our property during the summer months. Having a choice of depositing eggs on the hundreds of Common Milkweed, Swamp Milkweed, and Butterfly Weed which grow in our yard, along with other milkweeds too, they overwhelming choose Tropical Milkweed. I don’t know why they choose it, and I don’t care why. I only know that they do.

Aside from advocating the planting of Tropical Milkweed because female Monarchs prefer it for egg-laying, I promote it for another reason also. Tropical Milkweed is highly utilized as a nectar source by fall-migrating Monarchs. In October, when Monarchs are still migrating through Pennsylvania and most flowering plants are far past their prime, Tropical Milkweed is generally still green and, apparently, still producing sweet-flavored nectar. On warm, sunny October days, from late morning through mid-afternoon, our Tropical Milkweed patches are adorned by the flutter of dozens of migrating Monarchs. They stop by, nectar for just a while, and then continue on their way.

Above, a Monarch butterfly nectars on Butterfly Bush.

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