Asclepias tuberosa
Overview
Uses: Sunny borders and dry banks, pollinator and monarch waystation plantings, prairie and meadow gardens, mass planting on lean soil, cutting gardens.
Benefits: One of the few perennials that both feeds adult butterflies and raises their young, serving as nectar source and monarch host plant at once. Flat clusters of brilliant orange flowers open through midsummer on stiff, self-supporting stems, and a deep taproot carries the plant through heat and drought that flatten most border perennials.
USDA Hardiness Zones: 3–9
Sun: Full Sun
Life Cycle: Hardy Perennial
Growth Habit: Upright, Clumping — stiff branching stems from a deep taproot
Bloom Color: Orange
Mature Height: 1–2.5 ft.
Mature Width: 1–1.5 ft.
Bloom Season: Early to late summer
Growth Rate: Slow to Moderate
Summary
There is no other orange like it in a summer garden. Butterfly Weed opens in a flat, saturated tangerine that carries across a yard and looks almost artificial next to the softer pinks and purples blooming around it.
The plant is compact and upright, one to two and a half feet, with narrow dark green leaves running up stiff stems that never need staking. Flowering starts in early summer and repeats in flushes into late summer if spent heads are removed. Left alone, the flowers give way to slender pods that split open in fall and release silky seed on the wind.
What sets it apart from other milkweeds is what it lacks: no milky sap running everywhere, no aggressive underground spreading, no five-foot stems. It stays where it is planted and behaves in a border, which is why it moved from the roadside into the garden.
It is also working the whole time it is in bloom. Adult butterflies, native bees, and hoverflies feed at the flowers, and monarch females lay eggs on the foliage for their caterpillars to eat. Few plants this size do that much.
Care
Butterfly Weed Care
Plant in full sun. Six hours minimum, and more is better. In shade the stems stretch, lean, and flower poorly.
Soil is where most Butterfly Weed is lost, and the mistake is usually kindness. This plant evolved on dry prairies and lean, sandy, gravelly ground. It wants sharp drainage above all else, and it will rot in heavy clay that stays wet in winter. Do not enrich the planting hole, and do not mulch heavily against the crown.
Water regularly through the first season while the taproot goes down, then stop. Established plants are among the most drought-proof perennials you can grow and actively resent standing moisture.
Fertilizer is unnecessary and usually counterproductive. If the soil is genuinely exhausted, one light spring application of slow release fertilizer is the most it should ever receive.
Two habits worth knowing. It emerges very late in spring — often weeks after everything around it — so mark the spot in fall and resist digging there. And it does not transplant once settled, because the taproot breaks. Choose the location carefully and leave it alone. Deadhead the first flush for a second round of bloom, or leave the pods for seed and winter interest, then cut stems to the ground in early spring.
Size
What Size is the Butterfly Weed for Sale Online?
Our Butterfly Weed ships in a greenhouse-grade grow pot and is appropriately sized for its container at the time of shipment. If you have specific sizing or planting questions, please contact us.
How Large Does Butterfly Weed Grow?
Butterfly Weed reaches one to two and a half feet tall and spreads about one to one and a half feet wide, forming a tight upright clump rather than a running patch. Expect modest growth the first year while the taproot establishes, with full size from the second season onward. Space eighteen inches apart for a drift.
Additional Information
What are some common names for this plant?
The most widely used names, in rough order of familiarity, are:
- Butterfly weed
- Butterfly milkweed
- Orange milkweed
- Pleurisy root
- Chigger flower
Does it support monarch butterflies?
Yes, in both ways that matter. Asclepias tuberosa is a true milkweed, so monarch females lay eggs on it and the caterpillars feed on the foliage — monarchs cannot reproduce without a milkweed. The flowers also carry nectar for adult monarchs and a long list of native bees and other butterflies. Expect chewed leaves in a good year; that is the plant doing its job. See our Native Plants of North America collection for more monarch and pollinator plants.
Why has my plant not come up yet in spring?
Because it is one of the last perennials to break dormancy. Butterfly Weed commonly waits until well after the last frost, weeks behind its neighbors, and gardeners dig it up every year assuming it died. Mark the location in fall, be patient in spring, and give it until early summer before concluding anything.
Can I move it or divide it later?
Best not to. The plant grows from a deep, brittle taproot rather than a fibrous root ball, and a move usually snaps it. Established plants rarely recover and division is not practical. Pick the spot with that in mind — the trade-off is that an undisturbed plant can live for decades.
How does it handle drought and deer?
Very well on both counts. Once the taproot is down it needs no supplemental water through a dry summer, and the bitter sap means deer and rabbits almost always pass it by. See our Drought-Tolerant Plants collection and our deer-resistant perennials and grasses for more options that hold up in tough spots.
