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| butterfly milkweed |
Clusters of bright orange flowers bloom on butterfly milkweed in the early summer. This very durable wildflower also attracts monarch butterflies which sip nectar and lay their eggs on the foliage. Butterfly milkweed is 8 to 12 inches tall and usually has dark green lance-shaped leaves that exude a sticky, milky sap when damaged. Thick, fleshy roots enable butterfly milkweed to survive dry conditions in the wild, but it is equally at home in the wildflower border. Fleshy roots are an excellent survival strategy (on dry sites, but they also make this native wildflower difficult to transplant once established in the garden. It prefers to stay put once planted. The front of the wildflower border is the best place for this tough and beautiful native. It looks best when grown in combination with thread-leaf coreopsis, purple coneflower and lance-leaf coreopsis. Butterfly milkweed is usually late to begin growing in the spring and it is a good idea to mark its location so as to prevent accidentally digging it up or planting something on top of it.
