I planted 50 seedlings of asclepias curassavica late September with hopes they'd gain strong enough roots to survive before the first frost. The weather here has dipped in the 40's but back up to the high 60's and 70's until the last few days. I noticed today that the frosty wind has already blackened and curled my cannas so I feared the worst for my milkweed seedlings. Some of them seem ok but there are some with dark and swiveled leaves. Do you think they will come back being so young? I'm in zone 8.
Deborah
Oh no! Frost on my tropical milkweed seedlings!
Oh, that's discouraging. Did you start them all from seed? Do you have other mw plants besides these?
You just won't be able to tell until next spring. But the good news is that these seeds germinate great and all you have to do is throw some out and let them do their own thing. You can throw them out in a month or wait a few and they'll come up.
I'm collecting seeds now so just d-mail me if you would like some. I'm trying to wait until they separate from the fluffy stuff tho or it gets all over me and the house!
Paige
Deborah - Hopefully they'll make it. I'd give them a 50-50 chance. Are they mulched about 4-5 inches around the plants?
Paige - LOL! I can relate to the "fluffy stuff" all over the house. I am still seeing it floating around. My hubby told me to do it outside next time. One landed in his soda the day I was removing seeds from a pod. I got that look from across the room! Makes me laugh even now to recall.
You should see my back yard! It looks like I've been picking cotton! I've done it in the house before and it's worse than cat hair. It's more like spider webs that you can't shake off! lol
Yeah, I'm thinking Deborah's seedlings are still ok now since it just dipped down and didn't actually freeze. We'll hook her up tho if she needs it.
Ditto that! I'll have plenty of Scarlet Milkweed seeds here in about a week! :-)
You both are so sweet to offer me some of your seeds. I still have some seeds, though. These are my first milkweed plants and I did grow them from seeds. The jury's still out on their fate. I'll check them again today. Oh thanks for the tip about the fluff. I didn't know they'd float all over the place. I have enough problems with dust bunnies in the house.
I have some milkweed seed too. Just ask.
If you get the pod when it is barely open, it is easy to grab the fluff in a bunch, strip the seeds and get rid of the fluff. wetting the fluff makes it easy to dispose of.
Maggie
I was thinking about misting my seeds to get the fluff just a little damp so it wouldn't fly off. I noticed when I collected some that had been rained on that it stuck together. I did get some seeds like you described but most of them had started popping while I wasn't looking so I just take the stalk and shake it over a paper sack. I'm thinking this process just makes it fluff up more! LOL I changed to clipping the whole pod into the sack.