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How to Care for Milkweed Summer through Fall

7/26/2020

24 Comments

 

Deadheading milkweed flowers in the early summer and cutting back old stalks in the fall are common ways to maintain a healthy milkweed patch!

Picture

Deadheading

Removing flowers that have wilted, also known as deadheading, is a great way to prolong blooms in the early and mid-summer. After the first flush of flowers, simply cut off the flower cluster above the topmost leaves on the stem. This will cause the plant to branch out and produce a second flush of flowers. Caution: The milkweed sap can be a skin irritant so be sure to use gloves while pruning.
​

In order for your milkweed to be able to produce seed pods in the fall, deadhead only the first flush of flowers.  A single milkweed plant will produce hundreds of seeds and it is the best way to ensure you have seeds for the following year! Learn more about milkweed seed saving here.   Milkweed plants are known to spread so if you do not have room for more milkweed plants, cut the pods off in the fall when the pods are tan and the seeds are coffee brown. You can then give these seeds out to friends and family.

Some birds are known to use the silky floss of milkweed pods to build their nests. The vermillion flycatcher, black-capped chickadees and Baltimore orioles are some of the known species that use milkweed floss for nest-building. So, once you have harvested seeds, you can toss the fluff back outside!
Picture
– from The Field by Justine Kibbe November 7, 2018.

Cut Back

It's always best to plant milkweeds that are native to your area. In Nebraska, we have 17 native varieties of milkweed.  These native milkweed are perennials, meaning they come back year after year. Their aerial parts (flower, leaves, stem) die back but their rootstock remains alive throughout the winter. 

Cut back milkweed stalks in the late fall or winter, after they have produced seed pods and these seeds have had time to mature. Leave at least 6 inches of stalks to provide habitat for insects throughout the winter. Leaving stalks also gives you a marker so you know where your milkweed patch is. Birds such as Baltimore orioles can also strip fibers for nest material. When Spring arrives, you will have an abundance of new shoots and you won't have to do a thing!

Resources

Borders, Brianna and Lee-Mader, Eric. Milkweeds: A Conservation Practitioner's Guide
​https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/Documents/R2ES/Pollinators/8-Milkweeds_Handbook_XerSoc_June2014.pdf

Dole, Claire Hagen. Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Milkweeds—Easing the Plight of the Monarch Butterfly. June 1, 2000.
https://www.bbg.org/gardening/article/milkweeds#:~:text=Deadhead%20milkweed%20flowers%20to%20prolong,great%20in%20dried%2Dflower%20arrangements.


24 Comments
Margaret Groff
7/31/2020 04:35:21 pm

where can I get milkweed plants now

Reply
John Harkness
8/2/2020 04:21:32 pm

What is the purpose of cutting back milkweed stalks? The text of the article implies that it is better to leave them, contradicting the headline.

Reply
Mary
5/2/2021 01:09:26 pm

I got the impression that the author meant to cut them back to 6 inches, not all the way to the ground.

Reply
Jennifer Perez
9/8/2020 11:03:23 am

I am having a lot of trouble with Tachinid flies killing all my caterpillars. Does anyone have any solutions? Also I have housed as many caterpillars as I can giving them milkweed but half of them seem to be climbing to the top of the enclosure to pupate way to early.( instar 3 and 4s). Does anyone know how to prevent this?

Reply
Elaine
9/14/2020 08:44:56 am

I have problems with predators and tainted milkweed. To avoid the predators, if I see a Monarch lay an egg, I immediately bring it in and raise it in a cage on my lanai in Florida. I rinse the leaf briefly under water and run my finger along it to take off any other “critters”. Also I look at it with my small microscope. As soon as the eggs hatch I cut the leaf and place the caterpillar on new milkweed that I have grown. If a caterpillar ingests milkweed that has been sprayed with weed killer or a pesticide, the caterpillar will most likely stop eating and die, sometimes going into a premature J-hook. It’s quite a challenging hobby but the reward is worth. Good luck. There’s lots of info on Facebook to help you.

Reply
Jennifer
7/7/2021 12:48:24 pm

Is tainted milkweed the reason for caterpillars to vomit?

Jennifer
7/7/2021 12:52:54 pm

I suspected that they were doing that here because they were not getting enough to eat, but you said that you were supplying plenty. Now I don't know what to think! Maybe they are reacting to the amount of light they are getting or the temperature of the room???

Reply
Tere Bettis
9/30/2020 05:35:01 am

I have 4 pupae and one “lost” caterpillar. Crawls but doesn’t seem to eat or “J”. Any thoughts?

Reply
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G.
7/10/2021 05:14:32 am

Purchased milkweed plants (roots with a stem). One even grew wild in the middle of my Vinca patch! I planted in early May, N.E. USA Plants have grown, flowers are lovely. However, not a butterfly to be seen. It is now mid July!

Reply
Rick Wilson
7/10/2021 02:01:00 pm

I bought 6 blooming milkweed plants from our local Home Depot! We have allot of butterfly’s!
Blooms are gone seed pods have taken their place!
I want more blooms! What do I do!

Reply
Michelle Dellascio
4/7/2022 07:57:11 am

The caterpillars will eat the seed pods too. Just have other plants available for the butterflies to feast on. They don't exactly need the flowers to know the milkweed is there and lay their eggs. ;)

Reply
Juliann jokerst
9/4/2021 08:03:55 pm

I have milk weed an don't know how I got it
Did birds do this

Reply
Phil
10/21/2021 01:51:58 pm

Stocks on my swamp milkweed plant is covered in little orange bumps.
I live in eastern Canada.This is a first year plant.Why is that?

Reply
Patricia Wagner
11/22/2021 04:12:15 pm

Late for this year.—but I saw one mention of light to encourage cating. another place , Xerces Society? The said food must be put in the brightest place where the caterpillars stay attraction to light powerful or they will startve.

Reply
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2/24/2022 03:39:59 am

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Lilia Loleng Hernandez
4/20/2022 12:56:00 pm

I live in CA where the weather gets hot in the summer and it rains in the winter but we also get some freeze warnings. I am in 9b zone. How do I grow milkweed?

Reply
JoAnn Wilkinson
5/16/2022 05:43:22 pm

I have my first two pupae on my lanai in FL. I have ordered a butterfly house. My milkweed s are in pots, and most of leaves are gone, ( eaten or wilted).
Can I cut my plants down How long until they re- grow?
Thanks

Reply



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    Author

    Rebecca Chandler
    Garden Educator, Naturalist and Ethnobotanist

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