Asclepias tuberosa - butterfly milkweed

Height: 2’ to 3’
Spread: 2’ to 3’
Light Needs: full sun
Water: average to dry
Flower color: orange (rarely yellow)
Bloom time: May to July

This wildflower has showy flowers that attract a wide variety of insect pollinators. In particular, this plant is well known as an valuable host plant for the larvae of monarch butterflies. Seed pods split open in late summer to early fall to release seeds that float on the wind. This is a clumping plant that is suitable for any garden situation from a formal flower border to a natural setting. It is a long-lived perennial plant. Besides the monarch butterfly, a wide assortment of bugs, beetles and moths feed on milkweeds. Like most milkweeds, it is deer resistant. 

Please note that UNN does not control caterpillars. Monarch caterpillars have been browsing on these milkweed plants in the fall of 2026. The plants will die back to the ground this winter and return in spring.