Earlier this spring, IPR ran a story about the monarch butterfly's migratory return to Michigan.
Each year, the orange-and-black beauties make their way north to our state. And they're hungry.
The story we ran included advice to homeowners: Plant common milkweed, which the monarch caterpillars love.
Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer. And around here it’s also the unofficial start to the gardening season. So what better time to re-start Grow & Tell, our seasonal gardening segment.
"I was just like, 'This is so well intentioned and this will so let people down. This is not a good first experience to have with native plants as part of your home landscape,'" listener Kate in Petoskey told us.
When Kate moved to Petoskey, the house already had a nicely landscaped yard.
"A couple years in, a common milkweed plant popped up, and I was delighted," she said. "I knew it was important for monarch butterflies."
But then more popped up. In this part of the yard. In that part of the yard.
Over by the hydrangea.
Underneath the hydrangea.
The common milkweed plants were taking over.
Common milkweed spreads easily because it's connected by thick horizontal roots called rhizomes.
"They're almost like an extension cord in their thickness and sturdiness," Kate said. "So I very meticulously was digging out these rhizomes and then little babies were still popping up everywhere."
What to do?
Dylan Kulik, assistant director of sustainability at Interlochen Center for the Arts, says there are alternate forms of milkweed that can serve the same purpose but with less proliferation.
He recommends the appropriately named "butterfly milkweed." In Latin, that's Asclepias tuberosa, and sometimes the package will just say "butterfly weed."
"It's also vital habitat for monarchs as well as other pollinators, butterflies, native bees and also hummingbirds due to the above average nectar production of the blossoms," Kulik said. "The key difference here is the lack of those rugged, robust, tough rhizomes that spread through your garden."
You can buy butterfly milkweed at most garden stores or at local conservation districts. The seeds need a little love, though. To get them to grow, you need to put them in your fridge first to mimic the conditions these seeds undergo throughout winter.
"At the farm, usually how we accomplish our cold stratification is in a ziploc baggie with some wet sand, mix in your seeds, throw it in the fridge," Kulik said. "If you're oscillating around 30 to 40 degrees, that is creating the conditions that signal the seeds to germinate."
After 30 to 60 days, remove those seeds from the fridge and sow them directly into the garden, mark the area with what you're planting and keep them watered routinely.
You can also experiment with other common milkweed alternatives like swamp milkweed and tall milkweed.
