Asclepias Found!

Day 308: It's easy to get lost in a crowd, and that's exactly what happened to the milkweed in the Barren Wasteland. I've planted it several times with seed from various sources, and although some plants appeared in the span of the last two years, I was almost certain that none had come up this year. I kept checking their spot every week or so in the early season, and then forgot about them as the other plants grew taller. I was harvesting seed from the Deptford Pinks yesterday, and as I pushed a mass of Black-eyed Susans aside, there to my wondering eyes did appear a rather substantial concentration of Asclepias, two to three feet tall. That discovery inspired me to check the second spot, where I found several first-year plants 12-18 inches in height. None shows any sign of developing flowers, but at least they've taken root and, in the case of this specimen, have now returned for a third year. Gardening is often a matter of patience as well as hard work, but that said, I think some of those Black-eyed Susans are begging to be relocated so the milkweed can thrive.