Live Butterfly Weed Plant

Don’t miss out on some of the showiest native flowers! Named the Perennial Plant of the Year, Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) brings the heat to your naturalized plantings.

Brighten up the look of your Butterfly Gardens with its Incredible yellow and orange flowers. The display of flower power lasts for months and will rebloom if you trim older blooms for indoor cut flower arrangements.

This “weed” is actually one of the most valuable choices we have to support our magnificent Monarch butterflies. They count on this Milkweed variety as a host plant to feed the caterpillars..and the broad, flat blooms pump out plenty of nectar each season as a food source.

Butterfly Weed is a native flower that is common in the wild over most of America and half of Canada. It provides food and shelter for many species of butterflies.

Each flat flower umbel is composed of up to 25 tiny true flowers. Trust us, they’ll produce much more nectar than their petite size suggests.

You’ll relish several months of these marigold and saffron-colored blooms. Butterfly Weed definitely brings the heat with their charmingly intricate flowers that feature five sepals below five petals.

And nothing brings life and movement to a special landscape scene quite like butterflies, hummingbirds and honey bees flitting around. Plant a few Butterfly Weed plants and see what we mean.

The outstanding blooms float high above the airy, dark green foliage. The main stem starts off unbranched at the base, but divides so that several smaller branches hold up the blooms for a vase-shaped effect.

With a long, strong taproot that can reach down several feet below the surface…they adapt to many soil conditions, including bone dry, thin and rocky. In fact, these fuss-free plants are nearly maintenance-free in sharply drained soil.

Super hardy and astonishingly colorful, you can’t go wrong with these in your garden. They’ll make you smile every time you tour your property.

Order your Butterfly Weed plant from the pollinator plant experts at Nature Hills today!

How to Use Butterfly Weed Plant in the Landscape

Add a standout selection to native plantings in open sunny areas. Incorporate them into your mixed borders, and you’ll turn them into effective Butterfly Gardens.

Butterflies adore flowers, and these plants grow into incredible giving resources. Butterfly Weed plants mix beautifully with other natives like Rudbeckia and Coneflower.

Besides their beauty, you can also enjoy the knowledge that you are helping to keep a native wildflower species thriving. Towards that end…why not include Butterfly Weed as a potted plant in seasonal container gardens, too?

Let them grace your balcony for a creative display! These cold-hardy plants may even come back for you next year, especially if you choose a deep pot that has plenty of room for the taproots to stretch out.

They will resent being transplanted, so in the garden setting, choose their planting site carefully. Enliven a new planned bed on a tough slope with their cheerful color.

Rely on their durability in a rock garden. Remember, this plant likes it tough…so thin soil presents no problem for it.

In fact, the worst place you could plant it would be in rich garden soil that stays a bit damp. Use Butterfly Weed in a forgotten corner where the sun beats down and other plants struggle…and nickname it “Teflon Plant”, “Superman”, or its old standby “Pleurisy Root”!

This is a great choice for Children’s Gardens, too. They love the vivid colors almost as much as the butterflies will!

Watch closely to see Monarch caterpillars inch their way along the slender, lance-shaped leaves. They’ll develop into exciting chrysalis and hang from the bottom of the leaves.

In fall, kids love to inspect the dried seed pods that have split open to reveal the brown seeds. You probably remember how fun it was to blow on their silky threads and watch them soar into the air and sail away.

Gift your favorite teacher this special plant. They’ll certainly appreciate your thoughtful gesture to help them include living lessons in the plan.

Gardeners who have created an Edible Landscape…whether it be a Victory Garden or an orchard row of Apple trees should consider using this pollinator plant nearby. As beneficial pollinators visit the flower umbels daily for several months, they’ll explore the other plants to help pollinate your crops for “Second Summer”.

#ProPlantTips for Care

Ensure they receive at the minimum six hours of full sun a day. The more sun, the better the performance!

Water during the first year. After that…these waterwise perennials will become drought tolerant.

Please be patient while the taproot gets established. In areas with freezing cold winter temperatures, they may “disappear” only to delight you once again come springtime for another growing season.

Notice what the new growth looks like as it emerges in your yard. Watch for volunteer seedlings to appear here and there grown from seeds, and carefully move them to expand your planting or give to jealous friends!

Prune in late winter or early spring by cutting the stems down to the crown with the rest of your perennials. If you really don’t want to mess with free plants…simply keep the fading flowers trimmed for use indoors as a cut flower without fear of the milky sap found in other Milkweed varieties.

You can also trim the drying seed packets before they split open. Dry these pods to use in showy winter arrangements inside.

What’s not to love about this plant? Order Asclepias tuberosa Butterfly Weed Plant from us today.