The Secret to Germinating Milkweed!

Advice for Germinating Milkweed Seeds: I originally bought some milkweed seeds and knew nothing about getting them to germinate. Why would I want to grow milkweed? I want to provide host plants for the Monarch butterfly, the population of which has declined dramatically in recent years. Milkweed is essential for reproduction of Monarch butterflies. It is the ONLY plant on which the butterflies will lay their eggs.

On my first attempt at germinating the seeds, I just put them into soil straight from the package, watered, and waited... nothing. The next year, I bought a couple of plants from a native plant nursery, planted them, and collected seeds in the fall. Around January, I cold stratified the seeds in the refrigerator for about 6-8 weeks.

This requires wetting a paper towel and wringing out all the water, placing the seeds between two pieces of damp paper towel, and placing the "sandwich" of seeds in a Ziploc bag. I threw the bag in the refrigerator and waited. In late February, I gently scarified the seeds with some sandpaper, placed them in some soil, and voila! near perfect germination.