Our gardening columnist helps you figure out the types of milkweed that can be both beautiful and well-mannered in a Northeast Ohio garden.
Swamp milkweed is well suited to a home garden, as shown in this mixed perennial border along a driveway in Shaker Heights.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Monarch caterpillar season has returned to Northeast Ohio, and this year our family has adopted 13 baby caterpillars, or “cats.” As they approach chrysalis stage, these very hungry caterpillars are living up to the storybook title and chowing down on milkweed leaves almost as quickly as we can put them in the caterpillar enclosure.
We have planted some milkweed in our native front yard garden, but those young plants do not have nearly enough leaves to support our 13 cats, let alone help caterpillars in the wild. My kiddo has been biking daily to a nearby weedy lot to harvest several leaves every day, and we have barely been able to keep up with demand. Every morning we wake up to fat caterpillars, lazing on each other and milkweed stems, and a whole lot of frass.
An obvious response is to plant more milkweed, but common milkweed, which grows to be five feet high and spreads by rhizomes, can quickly take over a garden bed. This has led to milkweed’s bad reputation among some gardeners., reader Jeff from Pepper Pike emailed, “Years ago I followed the plight of the monarch butterfly. My daughter and I would spend weekends at Metroparks tagging monarchs, and later I purchased my own tags to tag monarchs in my backyard.
Readers, you’ve been told: Don’t plant common milkweed unless you want a meadow full of it. The good news is that other types of milkweed can be both beautiful and well-mannered in a Northeast Ohio garden, such as the swamp milkweed and butterfly milkweed we have in our front garden. Swamp milkweed has narrower leaves and deeper pink flowers than common milkweed, grows to a more demure three to four feet tall, and does not spread easily.
Milkweed can be grown from seed. Reader Matt from Wickliffe successfully used the winter sowing in milk jug method from last February’s article and reports that he ended up with 12 plants.
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