{"id":21878,"date":"2025-06-18T07:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T11:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/?p=21878"},"modified":"2025-06-18T07:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T11:58:11","slug":"perennial-highlight-asclepias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/perennial-highlight-asclepias\/","title":{"rendered":"Perennial Highlight &#8211; Asclepias"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">MY CHOICE OF PERENNIAL FOR THIS WEEK IS <em>ASCLEPIAS TUBEROSA<\/em>, OR MILKWEED<\/h3>\n<p>I love the month of June for so many reasons. On a personal level, we have Father\u2019s Day and my birthday. However, I love June for what it offers in terms of numerous beautiful perennials. The one at the top of my list is Asclepias, or MILKWEED!<\/p>\n<p>Here is a significant fact about Milkweed: Did you know that Milkweed is the only plant that the Monarch butterfly will lay her eggs on? This speaks volumes to me. We love our Monarch butterflies. But their population is declining rapidly. We are destroying their natural habitat and overusing pesticides. We need to turn this around.<\/p>\n<p>I encourage everyone to plant a Milkweed in their landscape. Here are some general characteristics and benefits of Milkweed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wants to be planted in full sun.<\/li>\n<li>Thrives in dry conditions \/ it is drought tolerant and carefree once established.<\/li>\n<li>Milkweed is essential for attracting and supporting Monarchs and other butterflies, and hummingbirds love it as well.<\/li>\n<li>Perfect plant for grouping in sunny gardens.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Many may wonder if you can plant Milkweed now that it&#8217;s mid-June. The answer is yes. As I mentioned earlier, Milkweed thrives in the sun and heat. Once you get it home, be sure to water the plant before planting and then water it in as you plant. Then for the rest of the summer just keep an eye on it if we should have a long dry spell.<\/p>\n<p>My challenge to everyone is to plant one Milkweed now. If all do this then we are helping to turn around the decline. I plan to plant one in my landscape and have my grandsons assist. I want this to be a learning experience for them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>PLANT A LITTLE HAPPINESS !!!!!!!!!!!<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/\">To read more posts from Doug, visit our blog<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/hours-locations\/big-great-greenhouse-in-richmond-virginia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Return to the Great Big Greenhouse homepage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MY CHOICE OF PERENNIAL FOR THIS WEEK IS ASCLEPIAS TUBEROSA, OR MILKWEED I love the month of June for so many reasons. On a personal level, we have Father\u2019s Day and my birthday. However, I love June for what it offers in terms of numerous beautiful perennials. The one at the top of my list &#8230; <a title=\"Perennial Highlight &#8211; Asclepias\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/perennial-highlight-asclepias\/\" aria-label=\"More on Perennial Highlight &#8211; Asclepias\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":21879,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gardening-with-doug","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Perennial Highlight - Asclepias - The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I love June for what it offers in terms of numerous beautiful perennials. The one at the top of my list is Asclepias, or MILKWEED!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.meadowsfarms.com\/great-big-greenhouse-gardening-blog\/perennial-highlight-asclepias\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Perennial Highlight - Asclepias - The Great Big Greenhouse Gardening Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I love June for what it offers in terms of numerous beautiful perennials. 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