Tropical Butterfly Weed Seeds

(P) Pkt of 50 seeds
Item #51035-PK-P1
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Quantity

Description

Magnificent tricolor blooms

If you think the native orange-flowered butterfly weed is lovely, just wait until you grow these tricolored blooms from its South American cousin. Tropical Butterfly Weed offers a very long season of bloom, irresistible attraction for pollinators from hummingbirds to butterflies to bees, and large flowers just right for garden, container, and even home.

Tropical Butterfly Weed (Asclepias curassavica) is a tender perennial that will thrive for several years as a houseplant or for one glorious year as an annual outdoors. (It will re-seed itself in zones 9-11.) It is shrubbier than the native butterfly weed, reaching 2 to 3 feet high and up to 2 feet wide with excellent branching and masses of flowers. The blooms are followed by quite handsome seedpods, about 3 to 4 inches long and very slender—great for fresh or dried bouquets.

As you might expect from a plant whose common name includes the word "weed," it's very easy to grow. Give it full sunshine to light shade—bright light indoors—and any well-drained soil and Tropical Butterfly Weed will reward you with its brilliant blooms from early summer until well into fall. The sap of this plant is poisonous, so deer and rabbits leave it alone. And pollinators just can't stay away.

Tropical Butterfly Weed is ideal for containers of all kinds, indoors and out. If growing it outdoors, cut the plant back before the first hard frost and bring it inside for winter—it will flourish. And it's a fine presence in the vegetable garden, bringing pollinators on the wing and keeping nibbling animals at bay. You just can't go wrong with this tropical beauty.

For the longest season of bloom, start the seeds indoors about 8 to 10 weeks before the last spring frost. Transplant when all danger of frost has passed. Keep the plant well watered when young—it becomes quite drought tolerant as it reaches maturity in early summer. Then sit back and enjoy the parade of blooms and seedpods.

Details

Skip Product Specs
Genus Asclepias
Species curassavica
Item Form (P) Pkt of 50 seeds
Zone 9 - 11
Bloom Start to End Early Summer - Mid Fall
Habit Upright
Seeds Per Pack 50
Plant Height 24 in - 3 ft
Plant Width 20 in - 24 in
Bloom Size 2 in
Additional Characteristics Award Winner, Bloom First Year, Butterfly Lovers, Cut-and-Come-Again, Direct Sow, Easy Care Plants, Ever Blooming, Flower, Free Bloomer, Heirloom, Long Bloomers, Pest Fighter, Rose Companions
Bloom Color Light Red, Multi-Color, Orange, Yellow
Foliage Color Dark Green
Light Requirements Full Sun
Moisture Requirements Dry, Moist,  well-drained
Resistance Cold Hardy, Deer Resistance, Disease Resistant, Drought Tolerant, Heat Tolerant, Humidity Tolerant, Pest Resistant
Soil Tolerance Clay, Normal,  loamy, Poor, Sandy
Uses Beds, Border, Containers, Cut Flowers, Everlastings, Outdoor, Wildflowers, Winter Interest

Product Review Summary

Based on 4 reviews
The average rating for this product is 4 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 4.0/5.0

Customer Reviews

October 18, 2022

It takes time to save butterflies.

This shopper rated the product 5 out of 5 stars

It took a long time for the seeds to come up. But after three years I now have a milkweed area about 4 feet x 6 feet and these past two years twenty one monarch caterpillars. The are bright yellow with black stripes. The caterpillars eat hundreds of leaves. When they are grown they climb up the side of the house and attach themselves to the underside of the eves as pupa. The milkweed patch is on the south side near the house. We now see butterflies in the yard each year. We have transplanted many plants to my brother's home and he now has a big patch.

Jo from CA
October 10, 2022

Monarch caterpillars favorite food

This shopper rated the product 5 out of 5 stars

I grew 12 of these plants this year and had 40 monarch caterpillars on them. I'll be growing a lot more next year

Ed's Grammy from NC
January 22, 2022

Not regular milkweed

This shopper rated the product 1 out of 5 stars

Do not buy, dangerous for monarchs in northern climates. https://xerces.org/blog/tropical-milkweed-a-no-grow

A from CT
September 27, 2019

My favorite milkweed

This shopper rated the product 4 out of 5 stars

Beautiful blooms that kept going until frost. Butterflies loved it so much that the monarch babies decimated my plants which rebounded from being basically just stems. Sadly annual in zone 6. 4 stars because germination was spotty for me.

Squishy from KS

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