Provide milkweed seeds with proper care for germination

Monarch butterfly caterpillars only eat leaves from the milkweed genus, Asclepias spp ., so it’s critical for those butterflies that we try to grow as many of these plants as we can. Collecting milkweed seeds for growing is only the first step.

For the seeds to germinate, they must be stratified, i.e., exposed to cold temperatures with moisture.

Natural stratification will occur if seeds are planted directly into the soil in the fall, right after harvesting. They need light in order to germinate, so the seeds may be simply pressed into the soil surface. A very light sprinkling of soil will help them to stay in place until they sprout next spring. Another way to plant them is to winter sow. I'll talk about that in a future article.

A more controlled method is to grow your own transpla