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- 🪴 Growing Milkweed in Containers 🪴
🪴 Growing Milkweed in Containers 🪴
Which Milkweed Varieties work best in Pots or Raised Beds?
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Happy mid-May from Minnesota, 👋
we’ve been given a reprieve from the summer heat and today’s HIGH is a frigid 50°F 🥶
We’ve also received some much-needed rain, which is optimal for the newly planted annuals/perennials.
All of the new plants look fantastic so far, and we’ve only lost 1 scraggly Mexican sunflower to the heat. After initial planting, we always hang on to a few extras in case weather extremes and pests take down plants…(at this point, we’re sitting pretty to start the 2025 season)
I may be jinxing myself here, but this potentially looks like it will be in the running for our best spring planting season…ever? Unfortunately, weather and pests are the two wildcards that can change these things in an instant…I hope the garden fates are being kind to you this spring!
By Monday, we will add the final fill-in plants to the garden and plant our containers…including some with MILKWEED! More on mw containers further down…
Garden Wildlife Report
The 🦌 and the 🐇 are both…GONE 🥳 This proclamation was from last week, but the good news holds true and bears repeating!
One thing I’ve noticed more over the past week is that our front lawn is filled with white dutch clover we spread last year, which seems to be keeping them content without even trying to get in the back. There is also a lot of lawn clover in the back, which could keep them from munching down (fewer) garden plants if they find a way back in. 🤞
I have yet to see our first monarch, but prime butterfly weather returns next Wednesday…
I have a really interesting update on our resident frog but technology has foiled me again with my recent switch to iphone and uploading videos to google drive…so, be on the lookout for this video in your next newsletter.🤞🐸
In the meantime, here’s a photo of the little guy from last week:
Garden Plant Report
This is always the most stressful week of gardening…planting week! this involves weeding, digging out tree seedlings, deciding whether to dig out ‘dead?’ plants 😥, deciding where to plant, mowing, daily watering in summer-like temps for 2025, but…it will all be worth it soon. 🤞
I’m feeling extra optimistic this year because the rabbits are gone, and the recent cool-turn is fantastic encouragement for new plants and fragile seedlings. We also won’t have monarchs ‘too early’ like we did last season...the milkweed is officially ready! 🙌
Our final plantings will be in pots, including milkweed for monarchs.
Before we get to our container plantings for 2025, a word from this newsletter’s sponsor…
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🪴🪴 Growing Milkweed...in Containers❣️
you can grow many types of milkweed in containers, but we prefer using annual varieties for making milkweed containers because:
Continuous blooms: one of the main reasons many people plant containers is to feature them in the garden, and continuous flowering milkweed is a beautiful way to achieve that goal.
Wild Roots: native milkweed roots spread via rhizomes which means you could have to upgrade container size. Rhizomes may also not play nicely with others if you add companion plants. Perennial milkweed is most likely to thrive direct- planted in your garden.
This year, we are planting two containers with the following plant combo:
two ‘silky mix’ (red/yellow, yellow) tropical milkweed plants
one zowie zinnia
We have typically paired tropical milkweed containers with shorter annuals like lantana or bidens, but this year we’re going to see how this pairs with a plant similar in height.
Check out this photo from our tropical container during the fall migration last season:
our most surprising container success was growing a giant milkweed (from cutting)…though the 10” container size was too small, it was a fast-growing annual in our northern climate:
Growing Milkweed in Containers ⬅️ (scroll to bottom of this linked post to see our giant milkweed container)
As I have said numerous time in the blog and newsletter, I have learned the most about gardening from getting out there and trying new things. When things fail, it’s just a valuable lesson to be learned for future gardens 😊
Garden Resources
Find Containers for Butterfly Plants ⬅️ (containers and raised bed options for milkweed and other butterfly plants)
Trifolium Repens (White Dutch Clover) ⬅️ (the great 🐰 distractor)
Asclepias Curassavica (Tropical Milkweed) ⬅️ (favorite milkweed for container planting)
Zowie Zinnia ⬅️ (milkweed container companion for 2025)
Calotropis Gigantea (Giant Milkweed) ⬅️ (our most surprising milkweed container plant)
🦋 Spread the GOOD BUZZ 🐝
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Coming Up Next?
With milkweed madness in the rearview mirror, what other pollinator-firiendly plants should you be considering to upgrade your garden? 🪴🪴 + a 🐸 VIDEO update!!
Blue Skies and Butterflies,
Tony your Butterfly Guide 🦋
