Milkweed

January is caterpillar time. There are at least a dozen on this plant.
Lots of scale on the other one, I’ll deal with it when the weather breaks

I had some milkweed planted out front, but a tree grew up around it and shaded it out. Despite the shade, lack of water and complete neglect it flowered every year. I’ve relocated it to a somewhat sunnier location. Pictured above are some new ones I planted last week. They are in almost full sun. The one that gets a little bit of afternoon shade is doing well, the one on full afternoon sun is struggling.

Someone has been munching on my milkweed, butterflies I hope. I read that milkweed should have the stalks cut back to 6″-8″ in Oct to encourage any late travelers to keep migrating south. idk? Since this is its first year in the ground I think I’ll leave it be and trim it late spring. After seeing the hungry January caterpillars I’m sure I won’t cut it back in the fall.

Once I see new growth in the spring I’ll trim them so they’ll bush out a bit more

In the early fall there were dozens of posts that milkweed needed to be cut back in the fall. Ugh. Don’t do it. Every plant I trimmed back died.