Wildflower Wednesday: Rejoicing in Milkweeds

It's been a long time since I did a post for Wildflower Wednesday, and it seemed like a good idea to pop up a post about one of my favourite, and most important, of wildflowers: milkweed. 

Milkweeds belong to the genus Asclepias, in the dogbane family, Apocynaceae. It's related to dogbane (Apocynum),  bluestar (Amsonia), periwinkle or myrtle (Vinca) and hoya, the wax plant with its stunning flowers. Looking at the flowers of milkweed, I can certainly see the relationship to hoya-the flower clusters, with their individual florets, look like they're made of china--just perfect.

 My favourite milkweed is the one deemed by some governments as a noxious pest, the common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). It grows wild along roadside, in well drained, even poor, soil, and when it is in bloom it is alive with pollinators: honeybees, bumblebees, pollinating flies/bee mimics, butterflies.

All milkweeds are important to monarch butterflies, which lay their eggs on the foliage. The eggs hatch into hungry hungry caterpillers, munching the foliage and flowers as they grow and prepare to pupate...

But--it's now August and I have yet to see a monarch butterfly around here. Nor have my friends in the Valley, and beyond.

This is the so called rosy or swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), which is sold in nurseries and is a splendid garden plant. It forms a clump rather than running, and like other milkweeds, it will produce pods full of silk-sailed seedheads, which float away on the wind. They are gorgeous. Rosy milkweed comes in this hot-pink version...

 And also in a white form, 'Ice Ballet'. I like the pristine white flowers, a nice contrast to the mostly hot colours in much of my garden.

The word 'weed' has negative connotations for many people, so I am noticing that this plant, butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) is now being sold as butterfly plant. It comes in shades of orange and yellow, wants very good drainage, and is slow to get started in the spring, as are all of the milkweeds. I have them marked so I don't think they're dead in the spring and dig them out!

This was a new-to-me species a couple of years ago, a plant given to me by Lloyd Mapplebeck of Hillendale Perennials in Truro. It's the whorled milkweed, Asclepias verticillata, with thread-leaf foliage and white-green flowers. It is later blooming than some of the other species. I just got a new plant when I moved, and am hoping it will flower this year. 

So that's a look at some of the hardy milkweeds from my part of Nova Scotia, Canada. I hope you'll cultivate a species or two in your garden--the pollinators will thank you. And hopefully, the monarchs will come back...