I have all native milkweeds in my garden. Asclepias Tuberosa and all of my 7 monarchs released last year were OE negative! Love monarchs, hope we can save them.
What about aquatic milkweed? It’s native to a lot of the states and never goes dormant. Why has that never been a migration problem for thousands of years? Also climate change has been happening for thousands even millions of years. Multiple ice ages and way hotter temps in the past.
I'm kinda against what this guy said. Just cut the milkweed by Halloween. issue is the other plants are so finicky and hard to grow. I planted so much native milkweed and it's not even 1/50th of the food supplied by the tropical milkweed. I'm on year 4 and I raised like 500 caterpillars. no way I'd have done it with the native one. Native one grows so slow, so tiny. I'm trying to incorporate more types of milkweed but it's hard.
THANK YOU for that info! Too late that I just bought few of this tropical milkweed today, and the nursery refused the return of them (and only them - but, other plants they accept! GRRRR 🥵) .... I wonder how thorough you did your halloween cut-down that could guarantee the plant will re-grow back in Spring? Is it: (a) All the way to the ground (no green left behind), or (b) Must leave 1-2 inches of greens?
Some say to do that but, to avoid any issues, just pull it and dont grow it. I grew it one year and then decided to research. I pulled it and never looked back. I plant more swamp milkweed now. (Asclepias Incarnata) in my oppinion, its a nicer looking plant anyway. Just ppant native and youll be fine.
I'm no expert, I'm not going to say you are wrong but you have not convinced me of your position. If parasites are a problem on tropical milkweed in the U.S. aren't they also a problem in tropical locations where the milkweed is a perennial? Should we just eradicate tropical milkweed? It does make sense to plant native milkweed in America and we do so but then again that doesn't necessarily mean that all non native plants are destructive. Tropical milkweed here in Tennessee is not a perennial. It dries and dies when cold weather comes. We planted it from fresh seed last year and as a result over 100 Monarchs hatched from those plants in the summer --Monarchs that would not have existed otherwise. Is it fair to say our seed grown first year annual plants are infected with parasites any more than our native Asclepias Tuberosa plants might be..the plants that return year after year? As far as migration is concerned we cut the plants when migration season begins in the fall and I saw no evidence of our hatched Monarchs staying around either early in the season or late season. When they hatched we might see them for a few days then they are gone. As long as tropical is grown from seed annually , cut and stalks removed in the fall what is the problem?
It’s great that you cut them down! I’m in socal and I used to have tropical. Now I have 30 Narrowleaf milkweeds. HOWEVER these plants have a different level in toxins, tropical having much more then Narrowleaf and a lot of other natives. This is fine, as we DO have natives with more toxins and they’re fine (ex; desert milkweed, and others such as woollypod or showy milkweed pretty much being the same) but those plants are HARDER to obtain or successfully grow! So, monarch’s are more likely to find tropical milkweed as they want to target plants with higher toxins, so the caterpillars are more poisonous. This does not do well with the fact that the most common and easiest natives to purchase and grow, may have less toxins. My Narrowleaf milkweed has a lesser amount, and from experience monarchs will lay their eggs on tropical and ignore my native when they are right next to each other. Caterpillars will also refuse to eat the native if it already tried tropical, again this is from experience. Now take all of this info and look at the sheer amount of people that do not cut down their plants or bleach their leaves for caterpillar food… these monarchs see this buffet of exotic, poisonous leaves and will fly to it and ignore the common, less poisonous natives. Again we DO have natives with as much if not more toxins, but they are INCREDIBLY hard to find or plant. I only have 1 successful woollypod milkweed, after trying to grow 10. Compared to my Narrowleaf milkweed, which is actually found in more nurseries AND almost guaranteed to grow from seed and live. We can only rely on this cutting down method, if literally everyone does it. Which unfortunately is not the case as I see 10 homes in my neighborhood not cutting down their tropical and I’m the 1 house with native milkweed actively encouraging the migration! (This less toxin native thing is also relevant in the east, common milkweed actually has less toxins then tropical. A butterfly will prefer to lay eggs on tropical, instead of common)
The fact that this is still such a raging issue to some people when the “cut during winter” solution works just fine is mind-blowing. Monarch science seems so full of people obsessed with being native purists rather than looking at the big picture.
I mean the natives are just so much better anyways??? I used to have tropical but I love my Asclepias Californica and Asclepias fascicularis to bits! I water them far less (less expensive!) and I don’t have to put effort into bleaching leaves and eggs or cutting the plants ever! We should definitely be loving our native plants, they’re gorgeous and cheap overall!
Thank you for saying this. It's something I've been relaying for years now and needs to be said. I always use native hosts. Plus OE isn't a nematode; it's a protozoan.
I use the balloon milkweed too. I have tried probably 8 different varieties of milkweed and the balloon grows the best and healthiest in my North Florida garden.
Tuberosa has no white sap (the only milkweed without it) and has a fuzzy stem. Speciosa is showy milkweed and you gotta be blind to think its tropical milkweed! It has pink and white star shaped flowers and huge, fuzzy leaves. It grows directly vertical, unlike tropical
Ask people to cut the tropical milkweed back by letting them know when the migration starts, instead of telling people that they are "destroying monarch migration patterns". Sometimes nurseries/garden centers only carry this particular type of milkweed.
Excellent video! Thank you this was super informative!
Mines in a pot, I'll just bring it in for the winter, which here in Louisiana, we don't get much of lol
❤❤❤thanks for the info!
thanks for the video. Reminds us to be responsible while enjoying the beauty of nature.
A very thorough and informative presentation, thank you Mr. Evans!
I have all native milkweeds in my garden. Asclepias Tuberosa and all of my 7 monarchs released last year were OE negative! Love monarchs, hope we can save them.
Crazy bc I was searching for a vid, worried my tropical milkweed was dying n now I’m just going to get rid of it. Ty
I'm just getting into milkweed and thought tropical milkweed flowers are pink? Am I wrong? Please reply.
What if you just cut down the milkweed for winter. Wouldn’t that solve all the problems?
That's what is recommended by some experts
I live in Florida…what kind of milkweed do I need?? tropical milkweed is mostly available in my area. I’m confused 😢
Same here
Swamp milkweed is best for fla
You're a very responsible gardener! :-) Thanks for the info!!
It’s so hard to find my local milkweed it’s so rare we’re im from
Is there a milkweed recommended here in Hawaii?
Calotropis gigantea
Id that native Lantana ??? Looks like the invasive kind..
What about aquatic milkweed? It’s native to a lot of the states and never goes dormant. Why has that never been a migration problem for thousands of years? Also climate change has been happening for thousands even millions of years. Multiple ice ages and way hotter temps in the past.
I'm kinda against what this guy said. Just cut the milkweed by Halloween. issue is the other plants are so finicky and hard to grow. I planted so much native milkweed and it's not even 1/50th of the food supplied by the tropical milkweed. I'm on year 4 and I raised like 500 caterpillars. no way I'd have done it with the native one. Native one grows so slow, so tiny. I'm trying to incorporate more types of milkweed but it's hard.
THANK YOU for that info!
Too late that I just bought few of this tropical milkweed today, and the nursery refused the return of them (and only them - but, other plants they accept! GRRRR 🥵) .... I wonder how thorough you did your halloween cut-down that could guarantee the plant will re-grow back in Spring? Is it:
(a) All the way to the ground (no green left behind), or
(b) Must leave 1-2 inches of greens?
Are you sure the native are native to your area then cus it shouldn’t be that hard to grow if it’s literally native to your area?
Is it ok if I cut it back when the natives go dormant
Some say to do that but, to avoid any issues, just pull it and dont grow it. I grew it one year and then decided to research. I pulled it and never looked back. I plant more swamp milkweed now. (Asclepias Incarnata) in my oppinion, its a nicer looking plant anyway. Just ppant native and youll be fine.
Due to the protozoa OE I would remove them and plant native milkweed.
I'm no expert, I'm not going to say you are wrong but you have not convinced me of your position. If parasites are a problem on tropical milkweed in the U.S. aren't they also a problem in tropical locations where the milkweed is a perennial? Should we just eradicate tropical milkweed? It does make sense to plant native milkweed in America and we do so but then again that doesn't necessarily mean that all non native plants are destructive.
Tropical milkweed here in Tennessee is not a perennial. It dries and dies when cold weather comes. We planted it from fresh seed last year and as a result over 100 Monarchs hatched from those plants in the summer --Monarchs that would not have existed otherwise. Is it fair to say our seed grown first year annual plants are infected with parasites any more than our native Asclepias Tuberosa plants might be..the plants that return year after year? As far as migration is concerned we cut the plants when migration season begins in the fall and I saw no evidence of our hatched Monarchs staying around either early in the season or late season. When they hatched we might see them for a few days then they are gone. As long as tropical is grown from seed annually , cut and stalks removed in the fall what is the problem?
It’s great that you cut them down! I’m in socal and I used to have tropical. Now I have 30 Narrowleaf milkweeds. HOWEVER these plants have a different level in toxins, tropical having much more then Narrowleaf and a lot of other natives. This is fine, as we DO have natives with more toxins and they’re fine (ex; desert milkweed, and others such as woollypod or showy milkweed pretty much being the same) but those plants are HARDER to obtain or successfully grow! So, monarch’s are more likely to find tropical milkweed as they want to target plants with higher toxins, so the caterpillars are more poisonous. This does not do well with the fact that the most common and easiest natives to purchase and grow, may have less toxins. My Narrowleaf milkweed has a lesser amount, and from experience monarchs will lay their eggs on tropical and ignore my native when they are right next to each other. Caterpillars will also refuse to eat the native if it already tried tropical, again this is from experience. Now take all of this info and look at the sheer amount of people that do not cut down their plants or bleach their leaves for caterpillar food… these monarchs see this buffet of exotic, poisonous leaves and will fly to it and ignore the common, less poisonous natives. Again we DO have natives with as much if not more toxins, but they are INCREDIBLY hard to find or plant. I only have 1 successful woollypod milkweed, after trying to grow 10. Compared to my Narrowleaf milkweed, which is actually found in more nurseries AND almost guaranteed to grow from seed and live. We can only rely on this cutting down method, if literally everyone does it. Which unfortunately is not the case as I see 10 homes in my neighborhood not cutting down their tropical and I’m the 1 house with native milkweed actively encouraging the migration! (This less toxin native thing is also relevant in the east, common milkweed actually has less toxins then tropical. A butterfly will prefer to lay eggs on tropical, instead of common)
@@keiibo9006 Thank you! Voice of reason!
The entitlement is not gonna help your message fly to the world.
what zone are you in?
The fact that this is still such a raging issue to some people when the “cut during winter” solution works just fine is mind-blowing. Monarch science seems so full of people obsessed with being native purists rather than looking at the big picture.
I mean the natives are just so much better anyways??? I used to have tropical but I love my Asclepias Californica and Asclepias fascicularis to bits! I water them far less (less expensive!) and I don’t have to put effort into bleaching leaves and eggs or cutting the plants ever! We should definitely be loving our native plants, they’re gorgeous and cheap overall!
Could you elaborate ? I got these from the plant store now I don’t know weather to keep them or not. Thanks
Thank you for saying this. It's something I've been relaying for years now and needs to be said. I always use native hosts.
Plus OE isn't a nematode; it's a protozoan.
I use the balloon milkweed too. I have tried probably 8 different varieties of milkweed and the balloon grows the best and healthiest in my North Florida garden.
Asclepias speciosa and Asclepias tuberosa look just like the one in your hand and they are native to North America.
Tuberosa has no white sap (the only milkweed without it) and has a fuzzy stem. Speciosa is showy milkweed and you gotta be blind to think its tropical milkweed! It has pink and white star shaped flowers and huge, fuzzy leaves. It grows directly vertical, unlike tropical
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Ask people to cut the tropical milkweed back by letting them know when the migration starts, instead of telling people that they are "destroying monarch migration patterns". Sometimes nurseries/garden centers only carry this particular type of milkweed.
I just bought 2 of these thinking they were the right ones. Did a bit of.research after getting home. Ahhh!
Truth hurts I suppose.