I purchased some butterfly weed plants and got them in the ground a week ago. Now it looks like they are dying. I've been giving each plant two quarts of water every other day. They are in fresh topsoil and sphagnum peat moss (mixed about 10 to 1). Any help appreciated.
Gary
Butterfly weed dying
Have you got a picture? Sounds like the plants may be in some transplanting shock. I often bring the plants home from the nursery, harden them off gradually, before I transplant them out to their designated area. Sudden changes in the location cause plant stress. Misting wilted plant during this transition also help.
I'm working on that. So far I'm not digital camera/computer literate enough to pull it off. LOL
Can you tell us what kind they are? Some milkweeds don't need a lot of water and some do. Also what is your soil like? Is it clay or sandy? Is it well drained? Also I've heard conflicting info on using peat to amend soil. If the peat drys out it is very hard to get it remoistened, so some say it can be harmful to mix it in your soil.
I have used peat to amend my soil for years. I think the trick is to get it fully moistened and then put a good covering of mulch on top. I also lay soaker hoses in my flower beds so I can go out at least once a week during dry weather and water everything real good. My flowers are very healthy and beautiful. But, as stated above, some butterfly weed likes it dry while other types like it a little more on the moist side. One of the types I have, asclepias tuberosa, doesn't like rich soil (didn't add peat at planting for this one) and it likes it more dry. One of the other types I have (senior moment here, can't come up with the name, lol) likes a good deep soaking once a week to keep it happy.
They are Asclepias tuberosa. I put them in a new bed with new topsoil. Regular soil here is rich, black loam that corn and soybeans thrive in. Do I need to add sand? I bought a soil meter last weekend. When I tested a few spots in the bed the soil was dry with a ph of 6.5. We gave them extra water last night. At least they are holding their own now. It may be the transplanting shock that Lily_love suggested coupled with the rich soil.
Gary
Now that you've planted them. If you wanted to add some sand to help drainage? Add just a small layer, and let the earthworms help work them in....
I routinely mix some sand into my garden bed when I first prepare the clayish soil that we've, with added compost, leave molds, sometimes peat moss to help water retion. The trick is to make the composition fast draining, but also retain moisture. A layer of mulch too, is helpful after we finish planting to conserve moisture. Our goal is to keep the soil moist, but prevent standing, soaking wet condition.
Gary
From Westville here, where did you get your Asclepias? I grew mine this year from seed and they are all about 5 inches tall. the past 2 years I purchased plants from Praire Gardens in Champaign....but had no sustainability with them.
I purchased mine on ebay. 8 plants in one sale. They are between 2 & 3" tall and came in 2.5x3" pots from Hirt's Gardens in Ohio.
When I planted mine (purchased from High Country Gardens) late last summer, they just sat there and didn't grow at all. They broke dormancy this spring, grew to about 1 1/2 feet tall and have several blooms each. They do develop a long tap root so probably need time to set that down before they put on any top growth. You may not get anything much out of them this year but next year I'll bet they will do great. Also, somewhere on DG I read a post by a hort person who said using grit for chickens is preferable to using sand as it's looser and won't compact.
We've got a couple feed stores and a farm supply close by so finding grit shouldn't be a problem. I'll be adding mulch before it gets steady hot; when it gets so hot I think twice before going golfing I know I'll figure it's too hot to pull weeds. LOL
I'd say 90% of my flowering plants are new this year. I've already lost some that came bare root and none of the seeds I planted have done anything. I've lost a few to the cat who gets out among them and roots around or eats them. Judy claims it's rabbits. Our dogs won't tolerate a rabbit in the yard. Sometimes they get yelled at for bothering the cat. I just want to keep what we have left. I also think any blooms we see this year will be a bonus. Next summer I hope to see our hard work will pay off.
Gary
Any plants that survive their first year will come back bigger and prettier next year. The first year is almost always a little disappointing. Unless it's very early spring just after temps have warmed up, any flowers I buy to put out I pot up first and set in a sheltered, semi-shaded location where I can baby them for for their first summer. It gives them time to establish a better root system and it's easier to keep them from having to compete with the weeds that grow all to quickly while your playing golf (or roaming around the woods with my camera in my case, LOL). I will leave them right there until the end of summer when temps cool off and the weeds slow down. They still don't do much that first year but come back so much stronger the following spring. On those cats--mine do that to my small new plants too. I take bricks left over from building our house (or you could buy river rocks which would look prettier) and surround the plant until it gets some good size to it. There isn't enough room for the cats to root around the plant so they go elsewhere. My cats think all of my flower beds are one big cat box! If you don't like that idea, try buying the biggest, cheapest can of pepper you can find and sprinkle it liberally around your new small plants--they don't like getting a nose full of that! You will just have to be diligent about reapplying after a good rain.
Thanks for the tips, NatureLover. I've got two more plants coming so I'll try re-potting with them for this year. Come October do I put them in the ground?
We've still got a pile of river rock. When Judy and I started going together 18 years ago her gardening philosophy was based on anything that couldn't be mowed with a 5' deck was classified as a weed and got sprayed with Roundup. After a while of me kidding her about the brown areas of the yard she chose to install river rock. After 10 years she grew tired of that and went to ornamental grass and mulch. This year we've gotten into flower beds. The problem with that is we didn't remove the river rock before mulching. Except for the new flower beds whenever I dig up a spot to put in a plant I get down 3" and then have to remove 3" of rock before getting to soil. Most often not an easy task. If I go with the pepper idea I wonder how difficult it will be to convince her it was recommended for rabbit control. LOL
Gary
I had a plant that I was having trouble with also. The leaves were just drying up and falling off. I was really concerned. I have three large plants in all. But it seems to have bounced back and is doing okay now (except the aphids I have to smush daily).
Also it is kind of funny, my butterfly weed did not come back from last year, perhaps it is an annual in my zone but I thought it would come back. Anyway, I have been throwing seeds out for months, starting last year and continuing this year. I also let the seeds off the plants just go. I don't have much luck with these seeds coming up and even when I buy the little plants from Live Monarch they never grow and stay little and eventually die. Well for about a week now just about everywhere I look I find little milkweeds coming up. I am thrilled. Come October I am hoping to need all of them with my migrating Monarchs. So far I have found about 20 little plants all around my garden and yard. So I guess I am luckier than I thought with those seeds. I am happy to have each and every plant that comes up. They have a ways to go to catch up to the nursery bought plants so I will be curious to see if they even get close to being that big or even blooming. I know, I know, little things excite me.
Leslie
gk,
When you plant your BF weed this fall depends on how soon your temps start getting cold. I'm kind of thinking up there where you are it might be better to go with September. And btw, the pepper won't hurt your cats--just makes them look for somewhere else to go. They might sneeze a time or two but that's all. I've been doing this for years. For a few special plants, I've resorted to putting pine cones around them.
lostintexas,
Are you trying to grow asclepias tuberosa? If so, let me share my hard-earned lesson with you. Tuberosa likes to grow in sandy, poor, soil. I bought some twice and both times it failed. I started buying some plants from High Country Gardens and I took a look at theirs. Turns out they have hybridized theirs so it will grow in clay soil which is what I have :-( I purchased three plants from them last year. As I stated above, they came back this year bigger and stronger and each has several blooms. They do much better in full sun though. I have two in my butterfly garden which only gets about 6 hours a day and those, while healthy and blooming, were slower to grow and bloom (about 3 weeks behind the others). BTW, one of the plants in my original order was crushed so I emailed them and they didn't just send me a replacement--they sent THREE new plants! I've made other orders from them and they are great--very prompt with orders and they do a wonderful job packing plants.
Yes isn'r that wonderful! That is one of the reasons I asked about what type of soil. If you have clay the special clay version is just what's needed! If you need a seed source here is one. http://www.prairienursery.com/store/index.php?main_page=mag_product_seed_info&products_id=64 Also A. incarnata is good for clay soil or moister soil.
Yes isn't that wonderful! That is one of the reasons I asked about what type of soil. If you have clay the special clay version is just what's needed! If you need a seed source here is one. http://www.prairienursery.com/store/index.php?main_page=mag_product_seed_info&products_id=64 Also A. incarnata is good for clay soil or moister soil.