Milkweed Options

Asclepia curassavica

I have always thought of milkweed as the orange kind that I grow, like in the top photograph, but the other day I was out in the corner of the garden where I had planted some more milkweed in hopes of attracting more butterflies, when I noticed this other plant in the bottom picture. It sure looked like milkweed foliage, but I had never seen the dainty little pink and white flowers like those before on my milkweed plants. I am pretty sure it is one that my friend Jeff brought me when he read that I was having a problem attracting Monarch butterflies with my other patch of milkweed. I am not sure of the cultivar so I will not even try to identify it, but we'll keep an eye on it to see if it does a better job of bringing in the Monarchs than the orange and yellow ones have in the past. I do get a lot of butterflies now (it has taken a few years because at first there were none attracted to this property) but the Monarchs have never made a stop even though it seems like we are in their migration path and we could get at least a few.