Should I go ahead and sow mine now or wait til spring? Soak seeds in water 24 hours before planting, Can sustain lots of munching monarch caterpillars late season, Long stems with pods make amazing table centerpiece, Last viable milkweed species before fall takes over, Colder hardiness zones must start seeds indoors for hopes of a seed harvest, or, Flowers aren’t super showy, but still pretty, Fewer pollinators use this than native milkweeds, Start seeds indoors 1-2 months before avg last frost, Seeds germinate in less than one week with heat and moisture, Grow this as a back border so it doesn’t shade your other butterfly plants, Staking may be required if not cut back in perennial zones, Don’t force open seed pods…they will start to open when they are ready. I’m sure if you try rooting some in late summer you’ll have better results. I had a miserable night & was taken to an eye specialist in the morning, that determined I had torn a hole in my cornea! Hi Bob, it sounds like your seeds are getting close! So while I had 17-20 Monarch caterpillars on my plants, they were almost all plucked off by the birds! I bought a plant last year , $9.95 in a 6 inch pot and about 4 1/2 feet tall .. it had 9 well developed balls . I ended up using neem oil and that works but don’t know the damage to caterpillars from the oil. Thanks for the tip on pruning late spring for a bushier plant as I did have to tie it up a couple of times! Two questions: When should I look for eggs since the plants go strong year-round? The Virginia Native Plant Society weighs in on a recent NYTimes article on the problem of tropical milkweed and non-native milkweeds like Gomphocarpus physocarpa: http://vnps.org/non-native-milkweed-helpful-harmful/. Recently, I’ve also noticed monarchs and hummingbirds sipping nectar from it. I have been mail ordering from Annie’s Annuals and Perennials in CA. I ran out of milkweed in Sept., 2015 and bought some which I think had been treated because I lost a lot of cats. Hi Fran, you’re on the borderline for hardiness. Maybe the trees are not dead and we just need to trim them all the way back to the trunk? Wife wants large common milkweed plants in nursery pots to grow caterpillars on this year so I’m getting an early start. I think, if I do this next fall, I will use a heat pad! I have 100 days before the next freeze…hopefully that will be enough time to see the plant in all its glory. There are hundreds of different milkweeds, but a few that are easily found here in Florida are scarlet milkweed (Asclepias; red or yellow, they are both called scarlet), giant milkweed (Calatropis), orange milkweed (Tuberosa), white milkweed (Perennis) and balloon milkweed (Asclepias physocarpa). Balloon Milkweed is a vigorous heat and sun loving tropical African shrub that is grown as a dieback perennial except in areas with mild winter climates. Maybe next year? only bought it because strangest looking balls in your face . Thank you for writing about this plant. What is the “season” for the pods? Hi Khaba, the ballon plant is a host plant for monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) and also the plain tiger butterfly (Danaus chrysippus)…. Thanks! Other than that, Annie’s always ships healthy plants & they arrive in great condition! We are a zone 8 here so I’m hopeful! good luck! Our plants are grown specifically to be safe for butterflies/caterpillars. Home. Physocarpus should probably grow well as a perennial in your region. If you have noticed other pollinators on the goose plant, please leave a comment below. Tony Gomez says. Please read comments below for more info about growing Gomphocarpus physocarpus in your garden: Valentine Gift Ideas for a Butterfly Lover, Start or Improve your Monarch Butterfly Garden, Butterfly Garden Book for Monarchs- Instant Download, Top Tools, Supplies, and Resources for Raising Monarch Butterflies, 25 Milkweed Plant Ideas for North American Butterfly Gardens, http://vnps.org/non-native-milkweed-helpful-harmful/, Monarch Butterfly Kits to Raise Caterpillars into Butterflies, Winter Sowing Milkweed Seeds Part 1: Supply Checklist, Perennial for USDA hardiness zone 8 and above (lows -12.2 °C or 10 °F), Not the same plant as its bushier brother, Sow seeds directly after final frost (not recommended below zone USDA zone 8). I am in zone 9B or 10A, depends on what chart you look at. It likes full sun to partial shade and average water. I am now the proud owner of 3 of these plants. Help!…please. When & how do I plant the seeds? I have used probably 500 ladybugs and about 100 lacewings and they hardly dented the problem. I’ve seen a Monarch caterpillar eating leaves and black wasps pollinating. I have had about a half dozen clippings, & I have only managed to get 1 more to root. The little monarch caterpillars seem to like it. Thank you can cut the stems and let them finish developing indoors…good luck! You’ll have an interesting centerpiece and the seeds should ripen to maturity. We do have a lot of those red and black bugs on the trees—maybe they killed the trees? Don’t remove them before, or they may not be viable. We grow them annually in zone 5. This is the first year I’ve planted the hairy balls variety and I love it. Hi Mary, we don’t get many eggs on physocarpus, but have found more on G. fruticosus. (The swarms of monarchs I had a few months ago seem to be gone for now. Any tips on it’s desired soil moisture or other? The seeds take a LONG time to ripen. Then…it came to me…”great balls of fire…that’s the hairy ball plant!”. I have over 20 of them growing in my yard. Hi Mary, I’ve overwintered a couple inside with pods and the seeds did mature…. View …. The reason you shouldnt mix natives and non natives that are this closely related is that they will hybridize and you’ll lose native population. I tried to open one and found a green pod inside. Good luck! ), you did not say where you are in Florida? I live in zone 9b in Southern California. Please forgive me for not responding before now…I somehow must have overlooked the notification in my emails! SKU: balloonmilkweedplant Categories: Butterfly Host Plants, Butterfly Nectar Plants, Milkweed Plants, Milkweed Plants and Seeds. By the way – they call G. physocarpus Bishop’s Balls in the UK and you can buy seeds and plants there. Hi Marilyn, G. Physocarpus (hairy balls) can be started from seed annually. BTW, all kinds of wasps *loved* the flowers. They are cold hardy to zone 8 so if you’re in a zone 8 or above, it should hopefully come back next season, but I would ask someone who grows this in your region. bloom: Late summer white flowers. I have a tall plant …had the flowers and still have a few but…don’t see any pods coming…. It is very important to cut the plants down so that they can restart & be fresh, but you don’t have to wait until the spring! It is not rare or threatened but the seeds are difficult to come by since they are seldom collected from their host plants. (Asclepias physocarpa). Try a facebook group like: PS…milkweed bugs eat the seeds, but don’t typically kill plants. Hi Tony, I noticed this AM that I had at least 10 cats on my Scarlett MW and very few leaves left on my 5 plants so I rushed to the nursery and bought 2 more plants, but while there they showed me several physocarpa that look really good but I hesitated. yes, the seeds are much smaller than common/swamp. In Savannah, we have had them return slowly from the previous two winters, but we are always hedging our bets, so to speak, and rooting cuttings, too. How do I avoid the fluff blowing all around in my condo if they pop? Hello Chris… As Tony said in his response, you probably made contact with the milky substance from the plants. I collected some of the seeds from the pods that have opened. Here are some ideas to stop aphids from taking over your milkweed plants: 10 Ways to Stop Aphids from Taking Over Milkweed. Hi Susan, if you’re in a northern region, your plants will not seed this season. Balloon Plant, Gomphocarpus physocarpus, is a member of the milkweed family although not normally labeled an Asclepias species. Any recommendations? I’ll have to plant them tomorrow. Luckily, the ripest ones are on a potted plant that I can bring in, but I was hoping to cut it way back for the winter so it will fit in the house . I am in Naples, FL and have grown Giant Milkweed for 3 years and it survives and blooms all year. Or will they last a few years like temperate-climate varieties? I was given a bouquet which included it a few weeks ago. I’ve started using toilet paper instead of paper towels to germinate seeds on, because I have had tomatoes seeds send roots into the paper towel and be impossible to get them loose w/o breaking most of them off (I threw those seeds away and started another packet.) The plant is related to milkweed and attracts bees and wasps making it a good choice for growing near the veggie garden. Both plants are doing well in dry garden conditions, but I have not had any monarch caterpillars on them so far. Hi Matt, I would start them about 2 months before direct planting. I brought in four last fall. The main purpose of this comment is to urge caution around Gomphocarpus physocarpus, it is a voracious weed in this part of the world and has become an increasing problem on farmland, roadsides and in conservation areas. Florida has twenty-one milkweed plants native to the state. Any suggestions where I might be able to find them stateside? They were less than half an inch across when the plant came indoors, but they are more than an inch in diameter now. As for finding less eggs, those predators are relentless in August. I would expect a high germination rate. I didn’t even bother to cut it back …. This milkweed species is a rare find in nurseries, so seeds are probably your only option in most regions. Hi Scott, if you want them to flower and seed in your zone, try starting them indoors 2 months early OR overwinter plants and start cuttings. Hi Bob, year old seeds should still be fresh. I love them!! I only have about 3 plants left and they are now in a grow pot outside, however, they do not seem to be growing very fast, if at all over the past few weeks. If so what would you recommend in terms of that since it’s woody would you still trim it back to about 6-8″ tall? These are some of the fertilizers we’ve used over the years. I want to comment on your concern about protecting the butterflies/caterpillars from the virus that Asclepias can carry. Otherwise, you could overwinter indoors or start seeds indoors next spring. Thanks and MERRY CHRISTMAS!! You can also overwinter plants indoors: Hello! The first pod (on the potted plant) just split today, with lots of shiny dark brown seeds inside. And, because I cut my plants down in the fall, I had healthy, full plants for the spring migration! Meanwhile wasps are killing my cats so I brought my 2 new plants inside and picked 12 cats off outside and brought them in!! I would like to harvest the seeds to start indoors early spring. Perhaps the plants go dormant over your Florida winter? The giant milkweed is cold hardy in zones 11 and 12 and, in its native region, can grow 8 feet wide and 15 feet tall. Balloon Milkweed. Until one particularly large swamp milkweed plant started producing flower buds, these were the plants where we found the most eggs. This is a tropical variety and my seeds are old, so should I expect 0% germination and order another packet of seeds real quick? Thank you, Mary. Ok to use tap water? Yesterday I was given one of the balls with seeds. I always cover milkweed seeds with a little dirt when direct planting: I have recently discovered the Gomphocarpus physocarpus plant on Ebay and purchased some seeds. My advice though, is to try BOTH methods and see if one outperforms the other. Here are some ideas that can yield instant results: How to stop Aphids from taking over Milkweed, Hi, I live in Los Angeles and my neighbors milkweed, hairy balls, are starting to seed. Hi Wendy, I think most milkweed seeds can survive cold temps but there is typically much less seeding from warm weather varieties. Since I am reading the cats prefer Oscar’s over giant, I am interested in this one – but can it carry OE? They grew to about two inches high, then lost their leaves several months ago. (kinda looks like it in your “open sesame” picture). I’m not sure if the plant gives off a scent/pheromone or if it is the milky sap – but it works. The pods did not mature in time before the cold came, even tho we had a loooong warm fall. The Great Black Wasps have probably been there too, but I’ve only seen those on the tropical milkweed. Just yesterday I noted a “weed”. Are they gonna ripen any time soon? I’ve been looking at floral wholesalers, but not having any luck finding any….Thanks!! Whorled Milkweed. You are right. Not as many aphids as other varieties of milkweed, did notice an increase in Lady Bugs as a result. No matter which varieties you plant (both native and non-native), many predators have adapted to the poisonous nature of milkweed, which is why it’s estimated only between 1-5% of monarchs survive to become butterflies outdoors. I tried to overwinter one so I could get a ‘tree-sized’ plant this season, but the plant died mid-winter. (you should see my stocky little pepper plants under these new lights). I have been there, done that, & it isn’t a fun experience, let me tell you!! I didn’t buy it again this year as it is not available locally. Thanks for the info on your site! If it’s not, you would need to overwinter the plants indoors or start seeds indoors early next spring. I wondered if any seedlings would come up as the seeds in the cotton like fluff blew all over the neighbor. I live in Florida zone 10, but I was also wondering if I should start them in pots, because our soil is very sandy. It has attracted a lot of pollinators including the Monarch and several other butterfly species, bees, wasps, hummingbird moth and hummingbirds. Hi Adam, I have never seen or heard of gomphocarpus species hybridizing with asclepias species…for that matter, I have yet to even see asclepias hybrids, and we have 17 species of milkweed in our garden. The seeds were a lot smaller than native milkweeds, so I didn’t want to pre-germinate them in wet toilet paper. Hi Paul, I’m not sure about the growth cycle in warm regions on the US. I’m curious if any will survive the winter, but either way I’ll start seeds indoors again in the spring. Spicebush Swallowtails gathering nectar from the pink flowers of Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata variety pulchra). I hope all is well in NZ! Just wondering about setting a few out in the flower beds since its a hot day. Or?? Hairy Balls in full glory. Very great information you have here as always. Hello, Anna. It is also called balloon plant and when picked green the inflated seed pods dry well. Thanks Tony for sending this link to me through The Beautiful Monarch! I would leave them outside to develop until just before your first frost. I like slow release because you don’t have to keep applying it: I stumbled across this article whilst researching weeds that grow on my property in northern New South Wales, Australia. In most regions of the US physocarpus is an annual. Thx! Easy, drought-tolerant and trouble free. (perennis); and balloon milkweed (Asclepias physocarpa). Have pics for proof. Very easy… try it out. I got some milkweed ssp in my my eye and it almost blinded me. Plant seeds 1/8" deep and 36” apart, using 3 seeds per hole. I have purchased from there, as well as Nelson’s Water Gardens, in Katy, TX. I live in Florida. To answer your question about where I purchase my Asclepias plants… Have you heard of Zone 9 Tropicals, in Houston? The only drawback from Annie’s, is that they have to spray them before shipping & you must keep them away from butterflies, caterpillars… any pollinators, for a minimum of 3 months. Native to South Africa, this plant is an invasive in tropical climates, but in my zone 6-7 area, winter cold keep it in check. The spread of non-native Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias currasivica), which is the most common commercially available species of milkweed, is having a negative impact on the population of Monarchs. 3″-4″ and stayed that way for a few weeks, but, started dying off. Since the seeds are over a year old and they are tropical I planted the whole packet. but stand the tap water for an hour as this release’s any chemicals in the water. The flowers are being pollinated by honeybees, several other bees and wasps and by monarch butterflies. There have been instances where people have had to go to the emergency room so I would suggest seeing a doctor if your eyes are still bothering you. Maybe it was was an allergic reaction? Miami , fl 33175 (305) 271-7190. As soon as we planted the balloon plant, the butterflies immediately went to it and planted their eggs. Fast & … I’ve been using cuttings for raising caterpillars indoors, but I haven’t been finding eggs and caterpillars on the plants in the garden, except for one caterpillar. Germinating the seeds in water gave me a lot of Gomphocarpus physocarpus plants this year. z: 3 to 9, Found in hill prairies to open woodlands, from Canada to Florida, east of the Rocky Mountians. Thank you Fran. I was lucky, though, as my eye has healed up without having any long term complications that I could of had! A friend of mine just cleaned out his garden and told me that he was going to give me some milkweed seeds. I’ve grown tropical milkweed for 6 years now, and have nothing but good things to say about how it has attracted and supported monarchs in our home and garden…there are also simple solutions to the potential problems associated with this species: Is Tropical Milkweed Killing Monarch Butterflies? I had over a dozen eggs laid on it! I guess it loves SF bay area weather. The Balloon Milkweed (Gomphocarpus physocarpus) is an unusual perennial for Florida butterfly gardens. Maybe someday I will run into you at Nelson’s Water Gardens or Zone 9 Tropicals! Enjoy the rest of your garden/raising season in California! Also… DO NOT LET ANY OF THE MILKY SUBSTANCE GET INTO YOUR EYES!! Planting the plant does not deter the moles – so the deterrent does not come from the roots. Good luck with your plants! Hi Anna, I’ll let Shirley answer too if you are looking for a local resource but there are also links to purchase online if you check out my milkweed resources page: 18+ Milkweed Ideas for your Butterfly Garden. In pairs. All I really need is a couple of plants. It is poisonous to stock and humans and the sap is a skin irritant, I’ve been hand-pulling plants this morning and now my hands tingle and eyes burn (hence my research!). Nice fine DeeDee! (I do protect many of my plants from freezes, too. Antelope Horn Milkweed Plants (Asclepias asperula), Narrowleaf Milkweed Plants (Asclepias fascicularis). I just saw this in a local nursery next to giant milkweed today. I live in South East Michigan. I typically soak the seeds in water for 24 hours before planting to soften the seed coat. I do have more appreciation for my eyesight, though, & I will be a lot more careful any time I handle Milkweed… and I warn everyone I share the plants with, to do the same! But I was able to cut the stems and have had them in water inside and now the pods are finally opening. You can start them indoors or try spring sowing seeds. There’s no reason you can’t have both, in my opinion…good luck with all your milkweed! It is a native milkweed of South Africa and in 2001 its name w… If pesticides weren’t used, you could always try raising a few indoors on stem cuttings after thoroughly rinsing the milkweed…good luck! Here are some facts about this amazing plant: Fast growing annual Milkweed, hardy in zones 8-10 Hi Derek, aphids are the bane of butterfly gardeners across the country, so I’ve compiled a list over the past few years on how to combat them. Hi Fran, these seeds don’t need cold stratification so I would start indoors late winter or early spring. They open very gradually. Most all of them are 6+ feet tall and filled with large maturing seed pods. Hi Brian, they aren’t going to develop further if they have been removed from the stem. 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