English
Milkweed is essential to your garden for helping increase monarch populations, since the butterfly can’t complete its life cycle without it. Add nectar-producing plants and you’ll have a true monarch oasis.
Our horticulturists’ suggestions:
1 | • | Common milkweed | Asclepias syriaca | Native perennial / Monarch host plant |
If you garden in pots, choose bloodflower (Asclepias curassavica), a tropical milkweed, instead. Treat this species the way you would an annual, or grow it as an indoor winter plant, after cutting it back.
2 | • | Spotted Joe Pye weed | Eutrochium maculatum | Native perennial |
3 | • | Canada goldenrod | Solidago canadensis | Native perennial |
4 | • | Meadow blazing-star | Liatris ligulistylis | Perennial, native in Saskatchewan |
5 | • | Butterfly-bush | Buddleja sp. | Tender perennial |
Fragile.
Choose a cultivar resistant to cold; use as an annual, or protect the plant in winter.
6 | • | Red sunflower | Tithonia rotundifolia | Annual |
7 | • | Garden heliotrope | Heliotropium arborescens | Tender perennial |
8 | • | Common yarrow | Achillea borealis | Native perennial |
Commonly sold under the name Achillea millefolium
6 | • | Lantana | Lantana camara | Tender perennial |
10 | • | New England aster | Symphyotrichum novae-angliae | Native perennial |
Downloadable documents

The TOP 10 plants for monarchs[ - 291.16 KB - 2 pages]