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If there’s one plant to work into your landscape, it’s milkweed. Native to North America, different milkweed varieties aren’t only beautiful, but they help support a wide variety of pollinators required for a healthy food chain that humans depend on.

It also serves as a lifeline for monarch butterflies, an iconic North American insect that’s in deep trouble throughout the United States due to toxic pesticide use, climate change and devastating habitat loss.

Although some people view milkweed as a, well, “weed,” the truth is it provides more ecological services to humans compared to many common non-native plant species that originated in other countries.

With that in mind, growing milkweed in your yard and promoting plantings in your community’s housing developments, playgrounds, parks, school properties and roadside areas is more important than ever because so much is at stake.

What Is Milkweed?

Common milkweed, or Asclepias syriaca, includes over 100 species in North America. It’s a flowering perennial that produces a milky substance that contains cardiac glycosides.

Although the plant often goes unnoticed, growing in fields, among wildflower gardens and along roadsides, it was actually used by Native Americans to treat health issues like coughs, asthma and warts.

This plant can grow to be five feet tall, and it grows clusters of flowers that are typically shades of pink and purple.

Common milkweed is known as nature’s mega food for over 400 insects. If you see it growing on a piece of property, you likely see bees, caterpillars, butterflies, beetles and ants there too.

Benefits/Uses

For many, planting milkweed makes for a beautiful addition to the garden in its own right, producing some of the most complex flowers in the animal kingdom, but its benefits go far beyond the plant’s appearance.

Historically, it was used as a natural remedy by some Native American tribes. An article from “The Old Farmer’s Almanac” highlights that the plant was used to remove warts, treat dysentery and relieve respiratory issues, like cough and asthma.

For modern purposes, milkweed has the following uses and benefits:

1. Improves BiodiversityBecause the relationship between caterpillars, butterflies, monarch migration and milkweed is such a complex issue, it sometimes feels like it’s out of our control. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Milkweed works to build stronger biodiversity in your neighborhood and beyond, and it has several other benefits, too.

2. Provides Pest Control, Including Stink Bugs

Milkweed actually has the power to make your life easier in the garden. A Washington State University study investigating the pest-control aspects of the plant turned up some really interesting findings:

• It is a cheap and simple way to support pollinator health and to get pests under control.
• Native milkweed plants attract beneficial insects like parasitic wasps, carnivorous flies and predatory bugs that suppress common pests like aphids, leafhoppers, thrips and even stink bugs

Another recent study highlighted a Georgia peanut farm that successfully used milkweed plantings to increase Tachinid fly numbers. Why would you want these insects? They act as parasites to pesky stink bugs, offering inexpensive, chemical-free pest control.

3. Helps Clean Contaminants

The “silk” found in milkweed pods is often utilized to help absorb contaminants during oil spills.

Interestingly, the seed pod fibers absorb more than four times the amount of oil compared to the plastic-based materials currently used during oil spill cleanup projects. Encore3, a Canadian company, created milkweed fiber-based kits that absorb 53 gallons of oil at a rate of .06 gallons per minute.

How does that cleanup rate compare to the polypropylene products on the market? It sponges up spilled oil twice as fast.

How to Grow

DAYS TO GERMINATION:

14-21 days at 65-70°F (18-21°C). Stratification for Pleurisy Root only: Moisten,cover with plastic, and refrigerate at 40-50°F (4-10°C) for 7-14 days. After stratification, seeds should be brought into warmer temperatures to germinate.

SOWING:

Transplant (recommended) - Sow 7-9 weeks before last frost. Sow 1/4" deep into a seed starting mix. Begins taproot growth upon germination. Do not allow to become pot bound at any time as plants will deteriorate rapidly. Transplant into larger cell packs or 3-4" pots 3-5 weeks after sowing. Harden off and transplant outdoors after the last frost. Direct seed - Can be direct sown in the fall or spring.

LIGHT PREFERENCE:

Sun.

You can plant milkweed species directly in soil or start them from milkweed seeds by scattering them about half an inch under soil surface and covering them. Planting milkweed in the fall is ideal, but you can also plant it in the springtime.

The plants prefer sunny areas, and because they’re native, they can adapt well to drier conditions

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