Multiply Your Milkweed Plants For Even More Butterflies With A Simple Harvesting Technique

Wildlife-friendly gardeners are no strangers to milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), one of the plants that will fill your garden with a variety of butterflies. While known particularly for its important role as a larval plant for monarch butterflies, these U.S. native plants provide food and breeding grounds for other types of moths and butterflies as well. And to share this wonderful resource among even more butterflies, gardeners can simply harvest and sow milkweed seeds to multiply their plantings and expand their butterfly gardens.

Harvesting milkweed seeds is one of the techniques you can use to transform a garden patch into a monarch butterfly haven on a budget. Depending on what type of milkweed you are growing, a single pod can contain 250 seeds or more, making this method a cost-effective hack that will allow you to easily amplify your wildlife gardening efforts. There is also a certain satisfaction that comes from growing plants from seed, especially when the results are so beneficial.

If you already have a dedicated milkweed patch in your yard or garden, you can simply harvest seeds from your own pods. Otherwise, ask a friend, family member, or neighbor if you can share in their milkweed seed bounty. Fall is when you'll want to use this harvesting technique to collect milkweed seeds. Wait until the pod turns brown so that the seeds are fully ripe, then remove the brown seeds along with their silky, white tails. There's one final step in the harvesting process—removing the silky threads attached to the seeds.

By far the easiest and the best time of year to sow milkweed seeds for a bountiful butterfly garden is autumn. To trigger germination, these seeds need the cold, wet conditions afforded to them by being outside through fall and winter. To sow your harvested seeds, press them into the soil where you want them to grow. Cover the seeds with a quarter inch of soil, and keep the soil moist until they germinate. Keep the area clear of weeds so the young milkweed plants don't get crowded or shaded out while these plants get established, helping to create your expanded butterfly garden.