Is this a milkweed? It grows all over the sides of the roads here and this morning I decided to bring some home, plant it, and ask questions later. If it is not then I will probably just take it out. I want the different varieties of the asclepias. I dont want a major weed invasion though.
chris
The leaves were not as droopy before I pulled them.
I have grown asclepias (the orange/red one) from seed, but they are only about 6" tall so I cant compare them. I also bought some from a catalog and they came bare root and they have not come up yet.
chris
PS.. the one on the left is not a forked plant...it is 1 plant in flont of the other.
Unless it's a cultivar of asclepias that I am not familiar with, it does not look like milkweed. But if it was wild flower plant, it might very well be a nectar plant for butterflies. I wouldn't pull it out yet. I'd wait to see what the butterflies do with it first. :-)
It looks to be a senecio, there are so many though, I couldn't guess which one.
I have Senecio confusus and the butterflies love it. (As do I.) Didn't realize that there were so many cultivars of Senecio. That's amazing!!!
Thanks everyone,
I will watch it for a while and see what the butterflies do with it. Also will watch so that it doesnt take over anything. I am always afraid of planting things that I am not sure what they are. But I am trying to give the butterflies and Hummers all different kinds of things they like.
I will look up Senecio to compare, I have never heard of it. If it is a perennial I will need some of that also. :)
Chris
Hey Chris! I have a bunch of that stuff, too! No, it's definitely not butterfly weed. Why don't you post that great picture on the ID forum? I'd like to know the name of it, too. It grows in a low areas here. I tried looking up in a wildflower book, but it was a woodland wild flower book and not listed. I loooked in PFs and found this: http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/67351/ I think that's it, what do you think?
NOW for my BIG NEWS!!!! -- sorry to hijack the thread, Chris, but your picture reminded me of my BIG NEWS!!!!
I went to our lower level today to see if I could sneak in some of my weedy milkweed seedlings somewhere and noticed the whole place looks like hell! It was formerly a nice flat lawn -- a croquet lawn except Mr. Clean didn't like mowing around the wickets LOL! Anyway, over 30 years' time, the trees have gotten bigger and the water is settling in different places and the whole place is sort of a quagmire. I talked to Mr. Clean about making it into a non-mowable or 2x a year mowable wild flower meadow and he agreed! He AGREED! I won a Turf War without having fired a shot!
This means: I can throw seeds willy nilly and see what comes up! I have a million packages here and surely some would be good for butterflies, right? My only regret is that the PawPaw tree likes drier conditions and there isn't as much sun as there used to be. I need to check with a neighbor (who owns about 1/4 of it) to make sure she won't have a hissy fit, but she should be okay with it. I am going to sneak a Weeping Willow in there, too. We used to have a big one, but it got hit by lightening and a split in half. When we pulled it up, those roots went 50 feet in every direction just under the soil....it was like pulling up a dog wire from an invisible fence or something.
Sorry, Chris, about snagging your thread, but one of the plants that has naturalized there is your yellow daisy. Mr. Clean went around with a weed wacker last weekend and got them all. I told him today that I thought it looked better with the daisies than without....and that's how the conversation got started.
Suzy
This message was edited May 11, 2007 1:09 AM
Suzy, here is a link to a few Senecio species, you might be able to find your in there.
http://www.npot.org/index.php?typeIN=&colorIN=&find=senecio&search_by=name
I think yours might be Senecio ampullaceus, but i am not sure.
Click on the links in the center column and you can see Dave's, usda.gov, and wildflower.org.
I hope you find it there.
Josephine.
Suzy, congrats on your Turf War!! LOL
I agree with everyone that it is not asclepias, but either a ragwort or senecio. I will keep it for a while and watch to see how much the butterflies really like it.
Thanks all,
chris
Chris , I am sorry, my post was meant to be for you, not Suzy, did you check it out?
Hey Josephine, It looks like you know a lot about this plant....all those photos are yours!
I found some plants M. Clean missed with his weedwacker, so Ihave some foliage to go by now. That's going to be the trick to identifying this fella since a yellow daisy is so common. I'm charging my camera battery now.
Thanks for the link.
Suzy
No problem frost, I use every bit of info on Daves wether it was meant for me or not, LOL. I did look them up and there is so many varieties. The leaf is what is giving me a hard time to ID, but it is not that important for me to know what it is. As long as it isnt going to be invasive, taking over my beds with weed seeds and the butterflies like it, that is what I was looking for. It is in the back of an area that is mainly for birds and butterflies. The birds and squirrels make a mess with the sunflower seeds and I was just looking to grow a few carefree things there to take your eye off the messy litter. I am still looking to add the different varieties of asclepias if anyone has extra seeds. I added 2 plants of upright growing verbena yesterday. They have little blue flowers and are very cute. The lady at Pikes said the butterflies love hers and they will grow into a clump about 2'-3' tall x2' around, which is exactly what I want. They dont spread on the ground like the regular purple verbena.
chris
Chris - I have scarlet milkweed seeds. D-mail if you want some.
I looked on the Georgia Native plant website. They list Senecio aureus, Golden Ragwort as a spring bloomer. There are no pics in PlantFiles for this. Other pics on the web of Golden Ragwort show rounded leaves and only 18 inches tall. I have what Chris's picture shows in my yard in all kinds of conditions growing wild. Some are 2 ft but I have one that is almost 4 ft. See the pic. So I don't think its the Golden Ragwort..... oh well.
Becky, scarlet butterfly weed is actually the only kind I have. I bought seeds from Onalee's seeds and they have grown to about 6" tall, I cant wait to see them in full color. Thanks so much for the offer!! Hopefully I will be able to get more seeds from the ones I have grown.
Chris
Here is a picture of my foliage -- quite different from yours. Frostweed, is this still a Senecio? Or a Packera?
I am having trouble with a positive ID from DG PFs and I couldn't find any listing of Indiana wildflowers with pictures..
Suzy
Whoops, I answered my own question.
Butterweed (Packera glabella)
Butterweed is also known as Yellowtop, Cressleaf and simply Ragwort. Fromerly as Senecio glabellus and Senecio lobatus.
LOL, I like that leaf better than mine. Looking it up now.
chris
Chris!
There is a wonderful place in Fayetteville, Ga just 9 miles from you. They sell Milkweed very reasonable, plus many other host plants. I bought Spicebush, Ice Ballet MW, Bottlebrush, Hercules Club, and several other things since last fall. All of them are growing well.
Go see Jim and Debi there, they are precious folks.. They can fix you up real quick.
http://nearlynativenursery.com/
770-460-6284
:-Deb
Deb,
I have been to his old place. He used to check out my snakes for me. I will go there today!
Thanks,
Chris
Very good!
Let me know what ya get :-)
Deb,
I mentioned you and he knew who you were, and said you have an awesome butterfly site.
I bought some...asclepias verticilata, phlox, penstemon, purple heliotrope, echinacea and this cool looking cousin of the jack in the pulpit called...arisaema dracontium. ( I love different looking things that nobody has any idea of what it is)
His new place is much, much larger than his old one and is comming along great! It is absolutly going to be the best place for native and different looking plants growing in-ground. By next spring he is going to have an enormous selection from what I saw growing from seed and cuttings.
I had a great time, thanks for the idea!
chris
Smiles!!
Lucky you, only a few miles away! So glad you could find some quick installs to your butterfly garden. You bought some great plants too! I wouldnt be able to grow the Arisaema dracontium, My soil isn't loamy or moist enough. Sounds neat though! Purple Heliotrope is a wonderful choice, so are Phlox and Penstemon....and the milkweed you bought has a lovely bloom.
I have to settle for ordering long distance through the mail....I'm really glad you could go and see their new place! they told me all about it, sounds like wow!
Deb
