Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Milkweed transplants

I must confess that last week I attempted to dig up and transplant a purple milkweed vine that's growing along the driveway. Not a good location! And not a successful endeavor AT ALL. Suffice it to say that I believe the Monarch Watch experts (Cathy and Kip) who say that most milkweed species grow a deep taproot and are difficult to transplant. The mother purple milkweed plant did INDEED have a taproot that must have measured an inch in diameter! I was astounded. What's more, I had to give up. But in the process, I accidentally knocked off a piece of the vine. It appeared to have a root so I stuck in the ground in the back yard and–VOILA–I think it's gonna survive! That's in the photo above.
This past weekend, we went to Mom's house. This spring, she has a TON of antelope horns! She even found and photographed a couple of monarch larvae. I decided I'd try and dig up some young ones in hopes of transplanting them to our Wildscape. I think I broke off a couple of taproots. But overall, the four look pretty good! See them in the photo above?
Finally, I also spotted a zizotes milkweed. James dug it up for me because the mowers are coming soon to Mom's property. The "taproot" looked more like small potatoes. I was glad to learn that this milkweed species doesn't have the long, thick kind. It's also doing well, as you can see above. 

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