All the Dirt on Gardening

Fall is the ideal time to plant perennials and MaryAnn King at Pine Ridge Gardens in northwest Arkansas has lots of native plants ready for fall gardens. Below are two of her postings: a list of the milkweed varieties a she has for your garden and a list of her nursery open days and hours for the fall Below are some milkweeds available now.  Also attached is new plants for fall.  Asclepias amplexicaulis Clasping milkweed $15.00 Asclepias tuberosa                             Orange butterfly weed $10.00 Asclepias tuberosa ‘Hello Yellow’     Yellow butterfly weed $12.00 Asclepias incarnata ‘Ice Ballet’          White swamp milkweed $10.00 Asclepias incarnata   Rose milkweed or swamp milkweed  ...

Growing milkweeds is a wonderful thing and although we grow a few varieties, the Monarch's ( Danaus  plexippus)  favorite seems to be the tropical sort (Asclepias tuberosa) with the bright orange flowers. None of the milkweed varieties are perennial here in zone 7 so it has to be started by seed. The plants are challenging to locate and if you can find it, the cost is ridiculous, well, unless you want to have Monarch families. The one year I purchased tropical milkweed, I dug it up in the fall and replanted it the following spring. That's always an option if you want to protect your investment. I start seeds each winter after a period of cold stratification in the refrigerator or by winter sowing in containers outside. Monarchs are one of the few butterflies that migrate twice a year. We usually get a few in the spring but a lot in the fall. During the drought years they avoid us, seeking better egg laying ground but this year's rain should put them back in our garden...

Monarch Watch in Kansas tracks the migration of Monarch butterflies as they relocate to Mexico for the winter months. Tulsa World ran a column on Sunday about the fall butterfly watch and the Associated Press also ran a fall story about them. Here are the links - Associated Press story and Tulsa World story about the local butterfly count. Our milkweed plants are still loaded with caterpillars, rapidly growing long and fat. According to the chart at Monarch Watch, Muskogee OK is at its peak migration activity from September 24 to October 6. And, that is what my eyes tell me, too. To find your peak Monarch migration period. 1- Go to Google or Dogpile and enter in quotes your town followed by the word latitude. For example "muskogee oklahoma latitude" and you will find a site such as www.travelmath.com that will give you the right numbers. Muskogee is 35 degrees north. 2 - Then, go to http://www.monarchwatch.org/tagmig/peak.html and look for your latitude on the chart t...