JohnnyMilkweed on Nostr: I’ll present the plant with the assumption it is grown in a pollinator plot, ...

I’ll present the plant with the assumption it is grown in a pollinator plot, adjacent to a vegetable garden. Here are the top-five reasons to grow milkweed plants.
1. Summer milkweed flowers are a nectar powerhouse. Your veggie garden needs pollination. Pollinators visit for the nectar and the pollination is a byproduct. One caveat here is that non-milkweed flowers can achieve this goal which will help most with bee-pollinated plants: melons, pumpkins, squash and cucumber.
2. Grown as an aphid trap. Brassica often host aphids. Milkweed’s attract and host aphids as a feature (not a bug). Aphid predators come along and help the milkweed and the brassica, and you! Aphid wasps, ladybug larvae, lacewing. All good for both plants.
3. 450 insects have been found on milkweeds. Similar to an oak tree. Milkweeds are foundational plants that support diverse insect types. A study found a pollinator plot can improve pest control by 16%. I like to say that more bugs means less concentration of a single pest. It’s a bug eat bug world.
4. Milkweed’s are perennial. You dig one hole, and enjoy the plant for many years.
5. Monarch. The monarch butterfly is rather popular worldwide. The North American migration is amazing and the milkweeds (a subset of plants in the apocynaceae family) are an important part in the biology of the monarch’s life-cycle. It’s not uncommon to plant a milkweed and have a monarch lay an egg on the plant’s leaf that same summer.
With 70+ kinds of milkweed in the USA selection is as important as getting started. Start with the kinds already growing in your state. Using Ohio as an example. I have a curated list of milkweeds. https://www.growmilkweedplants.com/state/oh Lets say your yard is kinda tidy, not as expansive as a prairie. I’ll steer you away from the milkweed with rhizomes that spread long distances in one season: common milkweed, whorled milkweed. Perhaps a slow spread is okay then purple milkweed or prairie milkweed are worth a look. The most popular can be the clumping or tuber type of root which is butterflyweed, swamp milkweed, redring milkweed, green antelopehorn and clasping milkweed. I call those ‘hoa friendly’ milkweeds.