How to grow Asclepias Tuberosa Ssp. Terminalis

Butterfly weed is a tuberous rooted perennial very easy to start from seed, however, they are slow to establish and may take 2 – 3 years to produce flowers. Mature plants may freely self-seed in the landscape if seed pods are not removed prior to splitting open. Butterfly weed does not transplant well because of its deep taproot and it may be best to leave them undisturbed once established.¹

Cover seeds slightly for better and faster germination.

Plant seeds where they are to stay as they have a deep taproot and resent transplanting.

Allow flowers to dry on stems or cut and dry indoors. Once petals and pod are thoroughly dry, seeds can be removed. There is one seed for ever petal.

These estimates for how long Asclepias tuberosa ssp. terminalis takes to sprout, grow and harvest are from real observations from real gardeners, right around the world.

During WWII the silky part attached to the seeds was used for life jackets.²³⁴ Milkweed is more bouyant then cork by 5 or 6 fold.²³⁴

butterfly weed, butterfly milkweed

Asclepias tuberosa L. ssp. terminalis Woodson

¹ missouribotanicalgarden.org

² Native Plant Society of Texas

³ Washington Post

⁴ “Your Country’s Armed Services Need Milkweed Floss: How You Can Help” :https://archive.org/stream/YourCountrysArmedServicesNeedMilkweedFlossHowYouCanHelp/YourCountrysArmedServicesNeedMilkweedFlossHowYouCanHelp_djvu.txt