Hi @Aggiedusty ! Im from Deep South Tx! I also plant lots of milkweed and raise monarchs for educational purposes. If you are looking for seeds check out the fb group Monarchs and milkweeds Houston Network they are always sharing all kinds of mw and nectar seeds.
Okay! That’s great news! We have a native milkweed up here that has a huge round leaf and nice size flower cluster that is green. Our mother , a school teacher for life, taught us very early on to leave the milkweeds alone in the pastures and told us of their importance to the monarchs survival as a larval and nectar source as they migrated back south from Canada. I don’t think she knew that we with pastures and milk weeds were helping to create that last super group of monarchs that must make it to Mexico to over winter. Most people are unaware that , no stage of the monarchs life cycle, whether it be the egg, larvae, pupae, or adult butterfly is hardy to a freeze and will not survive one. Thus the need for the mass migration. There is nothing like a beautiful perennial garden full of butterflies and honey bees bringing the garden into motion and even more full of life. I really do want to plant massive amounts of different milkweeds. I think up here In our drier climate Asclepia tuberosa would thrive and perennialize . In Dallas there was to much rain and soggy clay for it. I have beds that I’ve begun planting with perennials and that I water that Asclepius incarnata would thrive. They don’t kneed that much moisture. I’ve also saved a few seeds from the native one up here.
I am very sorry to learn of your Babba’s passing. I can tell you had a special connection and you still do. I believe she is here through you. My grandmother passed at 100 yrs and 3 days. She was mentor and I miss her daily but my memories with her are so full of love, caring, and life that they bring to me that really warm deeply loved feeling into my heart. She makes me smile each day and sometimes with a tear of longing.
I often taught seminars to the Dallas Master Gardeners and went through the process of getting my classes accredited for them for their needed points. The closest possible master garden group would be in Lubbock 90 miles to the east south east. I did try our extension agency but they are here almost at the readiness for the huge farming community and their needs, cotton, corn, milo, sunflowers and such. Nice though and did get fruit tree handouts and pecan variety handouts. It’s so rural out here most people can’t fathom what it’s like.
If you're dry most of the year then you might want to look at the xithothies species as well some of the staghorn milkweed and it definitely makes those compact clusters of greenish white fragrant flowers. Keep an eye on the ones that are flowering and seed heads are drying so you can go ahead and propagate your own seed more efficiently than mother nature.
Just got in from first round with the hens. Made a nest box from a child’s book shelf yesterday and got it put into their house late. Yes there were nice hollowed out places in the coastal nesting sand thus far all blue eggs in the different nests levels. Don’t we just love a little success . Can’t wait to look up the Xithotheis group! Yes we are dry prairie with native prairie zinnias and verbena and black foot daisys that everyone wants in the metroplex but it rains Way too much. And then there’s those sprinkler systems running unchecked.
Sad to report we had to kull almost all the roses my Better-half planted when we moved out here in 2011..... Rose fungus.
I appreciate the thanks, let's just let it be a two way street regarding 'memory lane' for those who have passed.
Ohhhh man @Aggiedusty when you have spare time. I'd really like to get detailed pics of it and maybe even plans pictures? I'd love to transmogrify that into a blend with the planned wellhouse.....
