This is the most famous member of our native milkweed family, and a well-known magnet for butterflies. The original orange native is one of the few wildflowers that is so beautiful, it was taken into perennial gardens just as it is in nature, with no hybridization. Well, all that's changed. Now we have a butter yellow version with the same qualities. Imagine how great they'll look together--an orange and yellow butterfly buffet!
The Butterfly Weeds have very little in common with their relative, the common milkweed--the familiar, tall, dusty-rose-flowered weed so often found along roadsides and in farm fields. The Butterfly Weeds have much more refined foliage and are never pests.
The milkweed family of North American plants is named Asclepias after Asclepias, the famous Greek God of Medicine, since the plants have long been used in herbal medicine.
This Asclepias is best placed in a dry, sunny spot, and appreciates fast-draining gritty soil. This orange version is native over most all of the eastern part of North America, from Canada all the way to South Florida.
