Native / Warm season
Common Milkweed
Monarch host plant and nectar source in meadows or large pollinator beds.
Not a culinary recommendation; grown for habitat value.
Seed spacing and maturity
- Days to maturity
- 365
- Germination temperature
- 55-75F
- Seed depth
- 0.25 inches
- Spacing
- 24 inches
- Row spacing
- 36 inches
- Start method
- Direct sow
Frost-date timing
- Direct sow
- 14 days before last frost
- Fall planting
- 10 weeks before first frost
Action plan
- Can I plant this now?
- Use your local last-frost, first-frost, and soil-temperature checks before treating this crop as plantable today.
- Start indoors or direct sow?
- Direct sow into the final bed when the soil temperature, seed depth, and moisture are ready.
- How much space?
- 24 inches in-row spacing, 36 inches between rows, and 0.25 inch seed depth.
- Best companions?
- Use this as part of a diverse flowering or herb planting, and treat companion claims as site-specific rather than guaranteed pest control.
- Common failure modes?
- Spreading habit can overwhelm small formal beds. Low to moderate water after establishment. Average to sandy soil; spreads by rhizomes.
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Low to moderate water after establishment.
- Soil
- Average to sandy soil; spreads by rhizomes.
- Watch
- Spreading habit can overwhelm small formal beds.
- native
- monarch-host
- pollinators
- perennial
Browse context
- Native Catalog Category collection
- Milkweed Family Rotation and family context
- Warm Season Seeds Season collection
- Direct Sow Seeds Start-method collection
- High Pollinator Value Seeds Practical trait collection
- Fall-Planting Seeds Practical trait collection
Related varieties
- Blanketflower Aster family · Warm season · 365 days
- Canada Goldenrod Aster family · Warm season · 365 days
- Clustered Mountain Mint Mint family · Warm season · 365 days
- Dense Blazing Star Aster family · Warm season · 365 days
- Eastern Bee Balm Mint family · Warm season · 365 days
- Foxglove Beardtongue Plantain family · Warm season · 365 days
Source: Penn State plant factsheets