Giant milkweed - Zone 9a Texas Gulf Coast - a staple for
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- The giant milkweed (calotropis gigantea) is native to SE Asia and grows very well along the Gulf Coast. It is a host plant to the monarch butterfly and flowers either white or lavender waxy blooms. For us, it is a staple in raising monarch caterpillars and releasing monarch butterflies. It is a very unique plant, and it is classified as a shrub that can get to over 12 feet tall.
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I'm from the Philippines. The blue-purple flowers smell like candy or apple bubblegum and so delicious! First time for me to see one yesterday and took a cutting home, hope they would root.
I hope it roots for you too!
Thanks for your help. I live on the SW southern Gulf coast in Florida. I found some at a local private nursery. I am going back today for more. My cats loved it!
Wonderful! The giant milkweed should love your climate!
I am in Florida 10a. I have planted and taken cuttings from them. Just put root toner on the ends and plant in pots until you get new growth. Plant them in the ground, and your butterflies will be happy.
Thanks for the tips! We will be doing this soon.
I just planted giant milkweed seeds today in my east coast Florida garden, zone 10. I will let you know how they grow!!
Yes please, let me know! I have not tried giant milkweed from seed! 😊
I'm in NW, but bought one from over at Enchanted Gardens in Richmond because we have 4 chrysalis ready to emerge. Looking forward to seeing this grow. It's in a container.
That is fantastic on your chrysalis!!! 😍🐛🦋
I have found these giant milkweed do very well here in the greater Houston metro area. I did an "experiment" and left 3 outside during our freeze to see if they would come back. All three froze, but all three came back from the roots. It took them forever to break ground, but they are nice plants now. I learned that if I want giant milkweed in the spring though I would need to bring in some of those giant milkweed and protect them during a freeze.
What do you think of Enchanted Gardens?
How do you keep the wasps and lizards from eating your caterpillars? I had to raise most of my monarchs last year so they would have a chance.
That is an excellent question. During the summer the wasps attack the caterpillars and the anoles in our garden eat the eggs (along with aphids). In my area, the spring, late fall, and winter are the best times for caterpillars out in our gardens. I have to protect them if I want to raise them in the summer. Last summer I didn't because we travelled. When I do protect them I use large outdoor caterpillar enclosures. What do you use?
I'm curious what kind of growth rate you get with these plants? Only two of the seeds I bought germinated and after three-and-a-half months, the largest plant is still only just under foot tall
I have never started these from seed. I have only purchased them from a Houston area nursery. They are usually in 2 gallon pots and about 3-4 ft. tall when i get them. In a summer they can easily grow 4 additional feet here.
I have had a problem finding this plant. I am in 9B in Florida. Can you propagate from cuttings?
They say you can. We are just trying to do that this spring. We'll see how it goes!
Where are you located? I was able to find giant milkweed near e in the Clermont area. One I planted and it’s huge this year and finally flowered. The other one I keep in a pot. It’s much smaller. You won’t find them in the big box stores. You have to go to your local nurseries.
wow big fleshy leaves that what i need because man do the eat
We never had enough milkweed for the monarch caterpillars until we got the giant milkweed. Now we never run out!
sweet@@ButterfliesNBirds
I've had a Calotropis Gigantea (giant milkweed) for several years. I don't even remember where I got it from, maybe Joshua's. It's the white flowered version. I have it in a large container and it gets morning sun. It has been in bloom through this extremely hot summer. It's multi branched and about 5 ft tall. I took cuttings but only 1 survived and is doing really good. I've noticed the original tree will develop yellow leaves which then drop off, however new leaves push out quickly. I believe the yellow leaves develop when I let it get too dry.
Last spring migration, I counted 30 monarch cats eating it to nubs. It's amazing how quickly it grew new leaves
I have given it microlife Ocean Harvest and seems to like that.
The purple flowered version is pretty, I was hoping to get a cutting from my daughter.
@Wendy5006 - Thank you SO MUCH for your comment! There isn't a lot of info out there for the Calotropis Gigantea and especially for our growing area. My plants will also develop some yellow leaves which drop off. I haven't determined why they do that. Mine are all in pots and hooked up to drip irrigation. We are also going to try our hand at taking cuttings soon. It is amazing how many monarch caterpillars are sustained on these giants. 30 caterpillars that you had during spring migration - that is wonderful! I haven't used Microlife Ocean Harvest, nor have I heard of them. But looking them up online I LOVE what I see. A special bonus is that they are in Houston! Thank you for mentioning this so much, because I am also a believer if you take care of the soil, it takes care of the plants and animals.
I love the giant milkweed for the same reason you do: It sustains the Monarch Caterpillars’ incredibly voracious appetites. I have had a terrible summer with OE and the GM is also easily bleached and does very well as cuttings. I’m surprised you’re not bothered by the green anoles. We have brown anoles here in Florida and I’m sad to say that those darn lizards eat all of my cat eggs. And most of my cats! I know the Monarch’s survival rate in the wild is somewhere below 10%. If I didn’t bring them into enclosures, I don’t know how any of them would ever make it. I think they’d quickly depopulate possibly disappear.
So beautiful!
Thank you - I think they are too! 😊
Wanted to followup and let you know I found 1 gallon pots of purple porterweed this morning at Lowes for $7.98 sounded like a good price. I’m going to pot each one in a 3 gallon for now and keep outside unless we get temps below 35 F for the winter. The tag on the plant said cold hardy 20-30.
Wow - that is a great find and price! 🤩 Your plans for the winter sound really good. I kept mine outside too unless it froze and then I put them in the garage until the freezing temps lifted.
Wow! Butterfly paradise!
Lol! We do always have quite a few butterflies in our gardens and I enjoy it so much! 😊
I'm on the Texas Gulf Coast, I have two I was given early this summer,. Now first of October, one is over three feet tall with ten stems all covered with leaves top to bottom so thick the stems are hidden, super fast growth, each stem puts on white flowers, making a nice bush. the second was planted at the same time 10 feet away is only now starting to grow. Both are in full sun, the weather has been high nineties most of the days. My soil is sand, they were watered every two to three days.
Nice! It is interesting about the difference in growth with the two plants only 10 feet apart. The one that has all the growth must have had better roots to start with?
I had two in pots that I planted in the ground a month or so ago. I'm in Tomball and my preferred nursery has some large ones growing in ground. the owner says they have been in ground for years and come back every year. Fingers crossed for mine! Where did you find the purple variety, mine are white. I was hoping for the purple like yours.
Thank you so much for your comment! I was very interested that the owner of your preferred nursery has had large giant milkweed growing in the ground for years and they come back every year. I have purchased both white flowered and purple flowered giant milkweed from Enchanted Gardens in Richmond (SW of Houston). I am now tempted to plant them in the ground just like you did!
The purple flowers shown at 2:35 are from Calotropis procera (Giant Milkweed). I don't believe I've ever seen a white version of that flower. However, the closely related Calotropis gigantea (Crown Flower) can come with white or purple flowers that look fairly similar. Hope it helps!
These are amazing! And the flowers are so beautiful!!
Thank you! We have had temps in the mid 70s the last two evenings and it seems all the plants in the yard have just "perked" up! 😊 I also think we are "only" supposed to get to a high of 98 degrees today!
So interesting! Where are you buying your giant milkweed? Seed or plant?
I have purchased all my giant milkweed (both purple and white flowering varieties) from Enchanted Gardens in Richmond, TX. I haven't tried seed nor propagation yet, but I hope to try propagating them this fall once our high heat subsides.
Wow, thank you for sharing! Never knew giant milkweed existed. Enjoy the feast sweet Monarchs!
You bet! You never know ... you might even get a giant milkweed sometime in the future! 😊
Wow 🎉
They really have performed well! 👍😊