Chloe Paden, undergraduate research assistant, and I have been planting a bunch of germinating milkweeds the past few days. We have at least 1000 tiny plants of five species (Asclepius speciosa, A. viridis, A. asperula, A. tuberosa, and A. syriaca) growing in our greenhouses. Chloe will be writing up the results of the germination trials – we used a couple different cold stratification and seed treatment techniques to see what resulted in the most germinating seeds. Overall, A. tuberosa (the orange butterfly weed) germination was the poorest which may have been do to fungal growth. Nonetheless, we have plenty of seedlings to plant out in our Monarch Waystation and pollinator garden projects!
Priscilla H. C. Crawford 