All You Need To Know About The Butterfly Milkweed

Written By Jessie Shrieve

PLANT PROFILE

  • 1’-3’ Tall

  • Green, multi-stem foliage with an orange flower in the warmer months

  • Reseeds readily

NEEDS

  • Dry, sandy soil that is well drained

  • Sun

NOTES

  • High deer resistance & mostly pest free

  • Host plant for monarch butterflies and attractive to other pollinators

  • If aphids begin to cluster at the top of the plant use a strong spray bottle of water or hose to knock them off every two or three days for a week

  • Deadheading flowers ensures more blooms throughout the season

PAIRS WELL WITH

Ornamental Grasses

Wildflowers, such as purple cornflowers

Lilies

USES

Pollinator Garden

Perennial Border

Beautiful cut and dried flower

The butterfly milkweed is a very common plant in the open grasslands of the Midwest and Great Plains. This native wildflower is found from Maine to South Dakota to the desert southwest to Florida. When Native Americans arrived in America, they used harvested fibers from dried stems of the butterfly milkweed to make ropes and weaving cloth. The leaves of the plant were, also, used in tea to treat chest inflammation.

Jessie Shrieve
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