Seneca Hill Perennials

We continue to find asclepias fascinating and challenging. The name "milkweed" is misleading: some of these are refined and even fussy plants. On the other hand, some have proven to be surprisingly adaptable to garden conditions. We continue to try to obtain new species for trial, and to trial the ones we have, and we will share information as we gather it.

We used to be under the happy misimpression that asclepias might self-sow to excess. We've since learned that, like orchids, asclepias depend on specific pollinators, and are quite unlikely to set seed unassisted outside their natural ranges. Some, however, will run. We will try to make you aware of which ones we find overenthused in that respect.

Asclepias plants require careful handling. Avoid breaking the roots when handling (tease them out carefully). We find they transplant more successfully in spring, so do not offer them for fall shipping.

Asclepias asperula

Known colloquially as Spider Milkweed or Antelope Horns, this native of the central US west to California and south to Texas extends its decumbent stems outward from the crown along the ground, holding large, full, fat-flowered umbels upright. The flowers are a pale yellowish-green accented with deep purple. It has done well in our rock garden here, and blooms beautifully in early summer.
Pot size: 14 fl.oz. (412ml) - 7.99 Add To Cart

Asclepias exaltata

Native to moist upland woods from New Hampshire west to northern Michigan and south to North Carolina and Kentucky, this milkweed has open umbels of large green and white flowers, sometimes with pinkish tints. We love this one. A clump makes an elegant and understated backdrop for more raucous plants in the lightly shaded garden.
Pot size: 1.25 pt (588ml) - 7.99 Add To Cart

Asclepias hallii

Hall's milkweed, native to Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, has moderately narrow leaves and round umbels of pale pink flowers. We find the foliage, with its blue-grey cast and strong veination, particularly attractive. This species looks like a promising candidate for the open sunny border. Although a westerner, it does not require dry soil, and (fair warning) when happy it does have a tendency to "run".
Pot size: 14 fl.oz. (412ml) - 7.99 Add To Cart

Asclepias hirtella

A must-have for the asclepias afficianado. Prairie Milkweed or Tall Green Milkweed produces up to 10 per stem of the most wonderful globular axillary umbels of narrow, sharply reflexed, greenish-whitish-purplish flowers, sort of like green versions of the ball that descends at New Year's in Times Square. Very late to emerge in spring, it blooms here at the end of summer, eliciting cries of admiration and astonishment from lovers of weird green flowers.
Pot size: 14 fl.oz. (412ml) - 7.99 Add To Cart

Asclepias incarnata subsp. pulchra

A regional (eastern) variant of the well-known Swamp Milkweed, this subspecies is distinguished by having finely hairy stems and leaves and relatively broad leaves (the typical A. incarnata has smooth, narrow, glossy leaves). The bright medium-pink flowers are similar, clustered in upright umbels at the ends and upper axils of each stem. Either makes a fine large clump in the garden, and is extraordinarily attractive to butterflies. Photo copyright Ron Rabideau/RareFind Nursery, used with permission.
Pot size: 1.5 pt (706ml) - 8.99 Add To Cart

Asclepias lanceolata

A super southern milkweed, native to moist areas from New Jersey to Tennessee and Texas and south to Florida. While the unbranched wand-like stem can pose a bit of a challenge (some support is recommended), the large brilliant red/orange flowers, in terminal umbels, are a delicious reward. We particularly enjoy the way ours grows thorugh a deep purple Clematis pitcheri from Texas. We expect to offer the clematis in fall 2010.
Pot size: 14 fl.oz. (412ml) - 7.99 Add To Cart

Asclepias latifolia

The Broadleaf Milkweed has glossy greyish leaves up to 15cm/6in long and almost as wide, and umbels of green and yellow flowers. Though native to Colorado, Texas and Utah, it has managed fairly well in our mound garden here in northern New York, where its leaves remind us of eucalyptus. We're still waiting to see flowers, but you could profitably grow this one for foliage alone.
Pot size:14 fl.oz. (412ml) - 7.99 Add To Cart

Asclepias purpurascens

Purple Milkweed is a beautiful and somewhat uncommon plant, native from New Hampshire west to Wisconsin and Kansas, and south to Oklahoma and Virginia. The emerging foliage is lightly touched with purple, and the deep reddish purple flowers crowd into tidily spherical inflorescences, several per stem. Though growing in the wild mostly in drier soils, it grows happily here in average garden conditions and is, so far, a clumper rather than a romper.
Pot size: 14 fl.oz. (412ml) - 7.99 Add To Cart

Asclepias speciosa

A western species, closely allied to A. purpurascens, but with much larger and more dramatically structured pink, green and white flowers and softly felted grey leaves. Stevens, in Kansas Wild Flowers, writes "Even under the severe environment of the plains this is a remarkably thrifty and floriferous plant, with sweetly fragrant, nectar-bearing flowers, attracting a continuous flow of bees and butterflies" (p.181). It is, however, a runner in fertile garden soils. We grow ours between the road and the front lawn, in a garden which is sandy, dry, and (obviously) contained on one side by asphalt and the other by the lawnmower.
Pot size: 1.25 pt (588ml) - 7.99 Add To Cart

Asclepias speciosa 'Davis'

A startlingly beautiful selection, originally found in Davis, CA, that is distinguished by having unusually heavily felted leaves, so that the whole plant is woolly and silvery-white. It seems to be as hardy here as the typical A. speciosa. We are really smitten with this one.
Pot size: 1.25 pt (588ml) - 7.99 Add To Cart

Asclepias sullivantii

The Prairie Milkweed, native from Kansas to North Dakota, has handsome blunt oval leaves and flower umbels resembling those of the eastern A. syriaca, but less crowded. As in A. syriaca, the flower color ranges from purplish to pale pink.
Next available spring 2011

Asclepias tuberosa coll. Colorado (A. tuberosa 'Western Gold Mix')

A western collection of this widespread US species, found by Alan Bradshaw of Alplains growing in an extremely arid part of the Colorado Plateau (Montrose Co., CO, 1860m/6100ft). David Salman of High Country Gardens tells us his Asclepias tuberosa 'Western Gold Mix' descends from this same population, and that "I feel it deserves a seed cultivar designation because of 1) its color, 2) the fact that it actually enjoys alkaline soils, 3) it's from a unique dry western habitat in Colorado and 4) is a stronger, more robust grower in my Santa Fe gardens that other forms of the species I've trialed." We haven't yet bloomed this strain, but David describes the inflorescences as being full and golden-orange, and the foliage as being a lustrous deep green. Our plants should probably be grouped under this cultivar name, as they have the same genetics. Photo copyright David Salman/High Country Gardens, used with permission.
Pot size: 14 fl.oz. (412ml) - 7.99 Add To Cart

Asclepias tuberosa, deep red-orange

A very special seed strain with deep red-orange flowers and relatively dark foliage. Flower color will vary, but all of ours bloomed darker than the native typical orange. We think this is one of our most exciting native plants, both in the garden and in the wild.
Pot size: 14 fl.oz. (412ml) - 7.99 Add To Cart

Asclepias tuberosa, yellow/gold-flowered

Seedlings from yellow- and gold-flowered plants selected from the 'Gay Butterflies' seed strain and kept well-isolated from orange-flowered plants. Almost all of the seedlings we've grown out have been yellow or gold.
Pot size: 14 fl.oz. (412ml) - 7.99 Add To Cart

Asclepias variegata

Asclepiadophiles everywhere recognize this as the crème de la crème of the American milkweeds (pun intended). The full shining white flowers, each with a wine-colored ring at the base of the hood, crowd into luscious terminal umbels. In the wild it occurs in well-drained or somewhat dry woods and along roadsides, and we have had trouble getting it to persist in our relatively moist, fertile conditions. A correspondent in Arkansas writes "I have these milkweeds growing in partial shade, on a hillside, in the most stony, rocky, soil I have on my property. It's up toward the top of a hill. I do not baby any of them at all. They are on the worst soil I have and I completely ignore them. I don't even know how many I have. They have reseeded themselves." We suggest, therefore, that you grow them lean.
Pot size: 14 fl.oz. (412ml) - 7.99 Add To Cart

Asclepias viridiflora

An interesting milkweed with thick, blunt leaves and dense umbels of pale green flowers. The flowers are peg-shaped, with sharply reflexed corollas and narrow, blunt-nosed hoods. Widespread: native from Canada to Georgia and westward to Texas, New Mexico and northern Arizona. Photo copyright Aaron Floden, used with permission.
Pot size: 14 fl.oz. (412ml)-7.99 Add To Cart

Asclepias viridis

This species is close to A. asperula, above. Its large cupped flowers, with pale green corollas and violet or purple hoods, are arrayed in loose umbels; the upright stems are clad in fairly broad leaves. Native to prairies, barrens and dry upland woods from Indiana to Missouri and Kansas, and south to South Carolina, Florida and Texas.
Photo copyright Lorraine Rubel, used with permission.
Pot size: 14 fl.oz. (412ml) - 7.99 Add To Cart