Milkweed Plant (Asclepias syriaca)

Milkweed growing in the garden beds. I will dig this up, being sure to include a large piece of the horizontal root that is below the soil surface. That root is what sends up the shoots.

Milkweed growing amongst other things in between the garden beds. Note sturdy stalk and hearth center vein.

Note opposite leaves on low on stalk.

Something ate this milkweed. It was there a day or two ago. I was going to dig it up and pot it for a workshop I am doing next week! Not sure if it was a deer or ground hog.

Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) seeds sprouting. I collected seeds pods last year and cold stratified the seeds by placing them in a plastic bag filled with moist light soil and stored the bag on the bottom shelf of my fridge for 3 months. The pots are empty paper towel tubes cut in half and the container is a strawberry container, both items salvaged from Meils restaurant in Stockton, NJ.

Seed pots and a dug up milkweed plant to be placed with some one who wants to grow it.

Note under side of leaf. It is fuzzy. This is where the female Monarch butterfly will place her egg, one to a leaf, one to a plant, usually. The tiny caterpillar pushes it way of of the egg case, turns around to eat it, and then commences on an eating journey that will cause it to grow 2,700 its size in 10-14 days! The tiny caterpillar starts out eating one slender hair at a time from the underside of the leaf, till its mouth parts develop into super munchers.