Asclepias purpurascens umbel
[Guest Post by Barbara Pintozzi]
The milkweeds are some of the finest of our native plants. Unfortunately for me, I don’t do orange, so Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly weed) is out. I tried the lovely pink, vanilla-scented swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) in the Nanoprairie, but it was too much of a thug for such a small space. I gave it to a neighbor. I thought I had to give up on milkweeds, until I saw a picture of Asclepias purpurascens, the purple milkweed. Now that’s the thing, I thought. But then I searched and searched local garden centers unsuccessfully.
Fate had intervened. Had I bought A. purpurascens, I would not have been able to grow it for the Native Seed Gardeners program here in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago. Native Seed Gardeners collects seeds of the local genotype, sows them, and grows them on into small plants, which are then provided free of charge to local gardeners to grow in their gardens. In return, the gardeners must collect the seeds from their plants and give them to Native Seed Gardeners to propagate into more plants which can then be used for prairie restorations. To avoid cross-contamination, they don’t allow gardeners to take plants if they are already growing a plant of the same species.
A. purpurascens has exceeded my expectations. Not only is it beautiful in flower, I find the buds beautiful in their own right.
recently formed buds
They start off this soft dusty pink, then mature into a stunning ruby.
Who needs blooms, when you’ve got buds like this?
Just when you think it can’t get any better, the blooms open, and an enticing scent reminiscent of cinnamon perfumes the air.
The hot pink color of the blooms is an added bonus.
I love everything about this plant, even the foliage, from which it gets its name.
Note the magenta/purple line down the middle of each leaf.
According to Illinois Wildflowers, various butterflies visit Asclepias purpurascens. While purple milkweed doesn’t seem to be favored by butterflies in my garden, it is popular with other pollinators.
Monarch butterfly caterpillars feed on its foliage, but I haven’t noticed any on mine yet.
Asclepias purpurascens makes an excellent garden plant, as it is not aggressive like swamp milkweed. It prefers partial sun, but it will grow in full sun or light shade. It will grow in average garden soil and actually does best in clayish soil. It is distributed from Ontario south to Texas and Georgia, but is endangered in Wisconsin and Massachusetts (USDA). It blooms in mid-to-late June in my Zone 5, Chicago-area garden. It reaches 2 to 3 feet in height.
A stand of these could stop traffic.
Why purple milkweed is so hard to find and isn’t better known is beyond me. This plant should be made more wildly available to gardeners east of the Rockies as a tough, beautiful, reliable workhorse.
[Barbara Pintozzi gardens for wildlife in her suburban Chicago home. You can read all about it at Mr. McGregor's Daughter. Barbara is also on the team at Beautiful Wildlife Garden. Follow @suburbangarden on Twitter.]
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Thanks for pointing this out. I will look for this now. Nice post.
Patsy Bell Hobson recently posted..U CAN® Watering System
Thanks, Patsy! I hope you can find it.
That is one beautiful milkweed! How could anyone not want it in their garden? It looks like the native range just doesn’t quite make it down here to FL. I’ll have to just sit back and enjoy your pictures, which are fabulous and really show how this plant has it all! You guys are lucky!
Loret recently posted..Tribute to a Great Friend
I guess this is a good compensation for having to endure blizzards.
Where can this be purchases or how can it aquired? Does it require sun or shade? I have a large yard that I am trying to naturalize! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hi, Bob. Prairie Moon Nursery (http://www.prairiemoon.com/seeds/wildflowers-forbs/asclepias-purpurascens-purple-milkweed/) carries seeds of Asclepias purpurascens, but they’re currently out of stock. I don’t know who else carries it. It can take full sun, but would rather grow in partial shade. Good luck.
we would love to have this on our 13 acres! We have sun and shade, plenty of clay and lots of hungry butterflies! Please let me know a good source for seeds.
As I said in my response to Bob, try Prairie Moon & ask when they’ll have more seed.
Excellent information! I have never seen this plant but Ct-Botanical lists it as Connecticut “special concern”. I’d love to find some local genotype seeds as this is exactly the kind of native plant with “splash” that the Scalzi Riverwalk Nature Preserve would like to introduce to the public. Earth Tones Nursery doesn’t have it on their plant list. Anyone know where I might be able to get local genotype seeds for Westchester-Connecticut?
Hey Sue,
This is a very rare plant, and it hard to find seeds or plants listed on the web. I had the good fortune of finding this growing in southern Iowa, and dug it up, to prevent it from being mowed over by the road crews.
The first year I planted it, I was able to pollinate the flowers with a tiny paint brush, and was rewarded with a seed pod!! That was about four or five years ago. Since rabbits were eating the early shoots, I relocated the plant and surrounded it with wire mesh. It grows to about three feet and flowers profusely. For the past three years I have been trying to get seed pods from this plant, but have had no luck. They start to form, and fall off before maturing.
I think this is the reason why seeds are so hard to come by.
This year I have started about 25 cuttings under lights. They are doing extremely well. I hope to have mature plants for sale before fall.
If you are interested, in plants, I will put you on my list.
It is a beautiful example of asclepias species!!
Lou Britto
325 Terrace Dr.
Waukee, IA, 50263
Lou – thanks but I need CT local genotype
Lou, this thread is old, so don’t know if you’ll see this. Do you have any plants for sale? Am doing a monarch way station at my kids’ school and would like more mature plants than those I can grow from seed.
Bob, I’d try online at Prairie Nursery or Prairie Moon Nursery. I love my finally mature speciman. The blooms are really cool, although in full sun it’s suffering a bit for me. Now, swamp milkweed is A. incarnata, right, not A. syriaca? I’m becoming so snobby–during my garden tour in June people kept asking names and I spewed out Latin and they asked “now what’s the common name?”
Benjamin Vogt recently posted..The Garden Book You Need Now
Thanks, Benjamin. I do try to keep up with nomenclature, but I’ve been rather sleep deprived lately and just plain messed up. I’ll fix that.
Just beautiful…looks a lot like Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) but seems to grow in drier conditions (although I have found swamp milkweed very adaptable to dry soils here). I have a client who I believe found this plant for sale somewhere, I’ll try to find out where he got it and report back..
Ellen Sousa recently posted..The Year I Shall Win the Pachysandra War
It is a much smaller plant than swamp milkweed, with more intense bloom color.
Barbara, that makes three of us local bloggers that I know are growing to harvest seed for “Native Seed Gardeners”. How long did it take to go from seedling to blooms?
I took a great short aromatic aster and a short panic grass and a short yellow baptisia this year. Working on a short grass prairie garden look.
What a great program to introduce native plants to gardeners as well as grow seed for the prairie restoration.
I
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Native Seed Gardeners has FB. Check them out.
Gloria recently posted..Rattlesnake Master Pollinator Information
It really is a great program, and I encourage everyone in the Chicago area to check it out and participate if you can.
This milkweed took only a year to reach bloom size, but only one of three plants. I feared the other two were dead. Then this spring, there they were.
That is a beauty! I will keep my eye out for it.
Kathy from Cold Climate Gardening recently posted..Queen of the Prairie: Wildflower Wednesday
What a beauty! Thank you Barbara . . . for letting us know this plant is endangered in my state! I will do my part to get it reestablished. Beautiful post!
Carol Duke recently posted..Wildflower Flowering ‘In The Pink’ Naturalizing Asclepias
Another endangered milkweed in WI and IL, or thereabouts, is A. sullivantii. For me, it’s #2 on the monarchs like to lay eggs on it behind A. incarnata.
Benjamin Vogt recently posted..The Garden Book You Need Now
I love this plant Barbara and may have to give it a try. You can’t have too many plants that Monarchs and other pollinators adore. gail
I will have to give this a try in the garden. I have the swamp milkweed in the meadow but have wanted some in the garden as well…
Donna@ Gardens Eye View recently posted..Death
Absolutely gorgeous – and your pictures are too! Thank you for helping us learn more about this one.
Ellen recently posted..Orchids That Might be in Your Yard
Thanks, Ellen.
Back in April, 2010, I planted 3 A. purpurascens–and I had high hopes for it in my garden. I had purchased them from Seneca Hills Perennials, an online nursery that has since closed down. Unfortunately, the 3 small plugs that they sent just didn’t survive my garden. I planted them in 3 different microclimates, hoping that at least 1 of them would adapt, but they never did. I would love to see that lovely plant blooming here. The A. incarnata is doing very well, however, in several different areas here, both dry and wet, and I’ve not found it to be a thug or invasive…although in a few years things could change as it gets fuller and more expansive. If I could grow Purple Milkweed here I would add it again in a heartbeat. If there is a reputable online nursery where I could find some again I’d love to try it one more time…
Jan@Thanks for today. recently posted..A Rosy Surprise in My Garden
Asclepias incarnata spreads by very deep, very long underground runners. It may be doing a stealth march through your garden right now. The only source I can recommend is that mentioned above, Prairie Moon Nursery. There may be other sources, but I can’t vouch for them.
I have grown Asclepias purpurascens for three years now in Northern New Jersey. While it spreads nicely and has formed a decent size group of plants, it has never flowered. Perhaps this is why seeds are so hard to come by?
Ha! I got some seeds! They aren’t local genotype but I couldn’t find those except thru wholesalers. I can grow these for garden-demo plants. Hopefully later, I’ll be able to find a southern CT local genotype that we can plant is the preserve.
This plant is so beautiful, I have to have it! I found place on line that sells it, as I don’t qualify for the native seed program.
I never knew this plant existed until I read this article, & I’m happy to see a writer from the Chicagoland area contributing to Wren Song!
I found it on Prarie Moon, but the above posters said it was sold out. I did a search on Dave’s Garden & they had 2 vendors for sale with this plant.