Showy Milkweed (Asclepias speciosa)

Showy milkweed is a native herbaceous perennial from widespread rhizomes, which produce stems that grow to 1½ to 5 ft tall in summer. The gray-green leaves are opposite, 4 to 7 inches long, oval, and covered in velvety hairs. Stems and foliage exude milky latex sap when cut. Flowers are in loose clusters at the top of the stems and are rose-purple, aging to yellow. Individual flowers look like crowns, with the corolla (petals) reflexed, and hoods above the corolla. Plants flower from May to September. Thick seed pods 3 to 5 inches long split down one side in fall to release reddish-brown, flat seeds. Each seed has a tuft of white, silky hairs that allows them to be dispersed by wind. Showy milkweed grows in well-drained soil in full or nearly full sun, in pastures, meadows, forest clearings, untilled fields, roadsides, and ditch banks, from sea level to 6,250 ft.
Prices listed are based on pure live seed weight, not bulk weight. You are only paying for viable seed.