Originally published at: Get free milkweed seeds to help Monarch butterflies survive | Boing Boing
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Comments link is broken. Probably because of the [OBJ]
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Just be careful of where you put these, folks. Milkweed are great for butterflies, and less great for the rest of your garden, which it will try to take over. Plant it out at the edge of your yard where brush and other weeds already grow. Or put it in a planter so you can somewhat control it, and/or you can pull the immature seed pods before they spread.
Also, kids LOVE milk weed. Make for great fights, and generally less painful than acorns. Parents hate them for the same reason (that stuff is sticky as all heck and hard to wash out). I uh… may have some childhood experience with this…
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A friend from HS has a kid who is adept at finding both small monarch caterpillars, but also eggs, and saving them, feeding them and watch them through the cocoon process.
I was always told chiggers love milk weed and to steer clear of it so you don’t end up with bites. But maybe it was just so I wouldn’t make a mess with it.
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If you are on California, tropical milkweed (Asclepias-curassavica) is not a good choice. There are a number of other native milkweed plants that are better alternatives. See www.xerces.org for more information.
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Don’t know about chiggers, but aphids absolutely love it.
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Sadly, they are also at increased risk of becoming an endangered species.
Too late.
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In return, they’ll send you the types of seed most suited to your region.
Oh good - because this is key. There’s a lot of different milkweeds, from all over the world. If you plant the wrong one, it could actually end up being actively harmful, blooming at the wrong time of year and potentially keeping them around to die when they should be migrating.
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