I have planted swamp milkweed with the hopes that will grow and help provide screening for some plants that are getting more sun than they like. If it spreads and takes over the back yard, all that much better.
(even better would be some obnoxious native vine that will grow all over my neighbor's fence and block out their yappy little dogs' view of my yard, so if anyone has any suggestions, they'd be welcome.)
I have EXACTLY the same need for a vine, except I need one that's native to the Pacific Northwest. Everything else -- neighbors, fence, yappy little dogs -- is the same.
*ducks head* um... we get a lot of monarchs on that purple flowering tree bushy thing in our backyard. sometimes it's a bit orange and black from them sucking down their lunch.
but then i'm pretty sure it's a pity suck on their part because they know i have a black thumb.
Oo! oo! I should send you a picture of our place (in VT) covered in milkweed during the summer (A. purpurascens, I think). It's enough for milkweed beetles and to spare -- we almost always see monarch caterpillars at some point.
What blows my mind about monarchs is that their "migration" is actually a multi-generational affair -- they reproduce and die in several cycles every year before re-congregating in their hibernation areas. It's like embarking on a colony ship to a distant star that only your great-grandchildren will see.
Oops, I sit corrected. What we have is just common milkweed, A. syriaca, but we do have scads of it, and my wife is very fond of helping it spread (not that it needs any help, around here).
When I was a child in upstate NY, we'd have fields of the stuff. Used to have milkweed wars throwing the pods at each other and counting coup with the white marks left by the sap. Lots of fun for us, not so much for our parents who had to wash the clothes later.
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(even better would be some obnoxious native vine that will grow all over my neighbor's fence and block out their yappy little dogs' view of my yard, so if anyone has any suggestions, they'd be welcome.)
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but then i'm pretty sure it's a pity suck on their part because they know i have a black thumb.
*grins*
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What blows my mind about monarchs is that their "migration" is actually a multi-generational affair -- they reproduce and die in several cycles every year before re-congregating in their hibernation areas. It's like embarking on a colony ship to a distant star that only your great-grandchildren will see.
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So, swamp milkweed won't take in "The Mire"?
What's up with that?
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