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Here's How To Score Free Milkweed Seeds For Your Butterfly Garden
By KATE NICHOLSON
Planting milkweed is a great way to attract monarch butterflies to your yard. If you have the space to grow them but can’t buy any plants, there are several ways to get free seeds.
Live Monarch, a grassroots monarch butterfly preservation organization in Georgia, has offered families free seeds of several milkweed varieties for over 20 years.
Grow Milkweed Plants, a site run by California-based monarch enthusiast Brad Grimm gives away free seed packets based on whether you’re located in the western or eastern U.S.A.
School educators and Scout leaders can enroll in Save Our Monarchs’ Pollinator Garden Program, which sends out a free seed mix that includes common and butterfly milkweed.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation gives away free native milkweed seeds, as does the South Carolina Wildlife Federation and the Illinois Monarch Project.
Go to local events such as seed exchanges, annual events run by groups such as Wild Ones chapters, or local gardening and wildlife preservation group giveaways to nab free seeds.
Collecting milkweed seeds directly from wild plants can ensure that you’ll grow varieties local to your area. Harvest seed pods from spent plants between spring and early winter.
You can also score free milkweed plugs, seedlings, and plants from Monarch Watch, Monarchs and More, or the Native Plant Expo and Marketplace’s Milkweed Giveaway.