{"id":2799,"date":"2019-07-29T05:32:14","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T13:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=2799"},"modified":"2019-07-29T05:32:14","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T13:32:14","slug":"blue-milkweed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/blue-milkweed\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Milkweed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tweedia\"<\/a>This year has been a great one for monarch butterflies\u2014at least in my neighborhood\u2014and that makes me feel hopeful.\u00a0 In fact, the news about climate change has been so dire that every monarch sighting is a celebration.<\/p>\n

Some butterflies are rapid flyers, navigating the air in a blur of beating wings.\u00a0 But monarchs often float on the breezes, allowing for maximum admiration of their orange and black markings.\u00a0 As a gardener and nature lover, I can\u2019t admire those gorgeous monarch wings without thinking about milkweed or Asclepias, the plant genus that the butterflies favor for nectar and caterpillar nourishment.<\/p>\n

My garden is home to butterfly weed or Asclepias tuberosa and swamp milkweed, otherwise known as Asclepias incarnata.\u00a0 Both lure the passing monarchs, though I haven\u2019t discovered any eggs or caterpillars on them.\u00a0 It\u2019s possible that those tame, domesticated plant species find less favor with monarchs than the common milkweed\u2014Asclepias syriaca\u2014that frequents country roadsides, field edges and other sunny, undeveloped sites.<\/p>\n

My milkweed collection has just swelled with the addition of a tropical cousin, vining blue milkweed or Tweedia cearulea.<\/p>\n

The Latin genus name has nothing to do with tweed fabric and everything to do with James Tweedie, nineteenth century plant collector and gardener, who made a first career at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, then emigrated and made a second career collecting plants in South America.\u00a0 \u201cCaerulea\u201d means \u201cblue\u201d and it refers to the sky-blue tweedia flowers.<\/p>\n

The familiar temperate zone milkweeds often bear dense, fragrant clusters or heads of tiny flowers.\u00a0 By contrast, blue milkweed is more relaxed and features single five-petaled blooms.\u00a0 Each one is about half an inch in diameter.\u00a0 Mature plants may cover themselves with scores of them.<\/p>\n

My blue milkweed is a young plant, barely twelve inches tall.\u00a0 If left to its own devices in a hospitable climate and appropriate support, it might reach ten feet.\u00a0 Growing in a container with a small trellis and overwintering indoors, it will probably max out at three feet.<\/p>\n

Tweedia stems are covered with fine, soft hairs, as are the elongated, heart-shaped leaves.\u00a0 Both are pleasant to touch.\u00a0 In keeping with the \u201cmilkweed\u201d moniker, the stems contain a milky sap that may irritate the skin of susceptible individuals.<\/p>\n

Blue milkweed seedpods are almost as showy as the flowers.\u00a0 When young they look like slender pea pods upholstered in fine green suede.\u00a0 Maturing to brown, they finally split, liberating seeds that float far and wide, borne aloft by bits of attached fluff.<\/p>\n

My new blue milkweed is getting acclimated on the back porch, but will eventually spend the rest of the growing season in a sunny, protected space in the back garden.\u00a0 When night temperatures dip into the fifties, it will migrate into the house.\u00a0 Since it is confined to a pot, I\u2019ll fertilize while it is in active growth and stop in winter.\u00a0 To stimulate bushy new growth, I\u2019ll also cut it back next spring before it goes outside.<\/p>\n

Will monarchs flock to a blooming tweedia?\u00a0 Apparently not, according to at least one butterfly website, which also notes that if monarch eggs are manually moved to blue milkweed plants, the caterpillars that hatch from them will munch the leaves and thrive.\u00a0 My uncle used to discourage finicky eating by growling, \u201cEat something near you.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s clear that monarch caterpillars hatched on tweedia leaves follow that same line of reasoning.<\/p>\n

Blue milkweed has acquired several other descriptive nicknames over the years, including southern star, star of the Argentine, silkpods and star flower.\u00a0 Whatever you call it, it is a lovely plant.\u00a0 You can order seeds from numerous vendors on Amazon.\u00a0 If plants are more to your taste, check local nurseries or garden centers for availability.\u00a0 You will not find tweedia at big box stores.\u00a0 You can also buy one from Flowers by the Sea, a California-based nursery.\u00a0 Find them by calling (707) 877-1717 or clicking on http:\/\/www.fbts.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Blue milkweed is currently out of stock at Flowers by the Sea, but if you contact them, they will notify you when the plants become available again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year has been a great one for monarch butterflies\u2014at least in my neighborhood\u2014and that makes me feel hopeful.\u00a0 In fact, the news about climate change has been so dire that every monarch sighting is a celebration. Some butterflies are rapid flyers, navigating the air in a blur of beating wings.\u00a0 But monarchs often float … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[852,155,2146,2148,2149,2147,2145],"class_list":["post-2799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-container-plants","tag-habitat-plants","tag-monarch-butterflies-james-tweedie","tag-silkpods","tag-star-flower","tag-star-of-the-argentine","tag-tweedia-caerulea-blue-milkweed-asclepias-family-vining-plants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2801,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2799\/revisions\/2801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}