Spider Milkweed | Asclepias viridis

🌿 Ships well rooted in a 3.5 x 5 inch deep pot. Well established root system and ready to plant! 

Also known as green antelopehorn milkweed, this is one of the Southeast's most important native milkweeds — and one of the first to bloom in spring, making it a critical early food source for northbound Monarchs before other milkweeds have even broken dormancy. The flowers are unlike any other milkweed: baseball-sized clusters of creamy greenish-white petals cupping upward around striking purple hoods, fragrant and showy from late spring through midsummer. Monarch, Queen, and Soldier butterfly caterpillars all use it as a larval host; bees, hummingbirds, and a long list of pollinators work the nectar. The dramatic upright seedpods that follow split open in fall to release silky-tufted seeds on the breeze.
It thrives exactly where other plants struggle — dry, lean, poor soil in full sun with minimal competition. Deep taproot makes it exceptionally drought-tolerant and long-lived once established, but also means it resents transplanting and takes a season to settle in. Don't panic if it disappears the first summer — it's putting down roots, and it will return.

🌿 Latin Name: Asclepias viridis
🌞 Light: Full sun
🌱 Soil: Dry to medium, well-drained; lean and poor soils preferred; deep taproot; no wet feet or heavy competition
💧 Water: Low; drought-tolerant once established
📏 Mature Size: 12–24 inches tall; multiple stems from root crown
🌸 Bloom Time: Late spring through midsummer; one of the earliest milkweeds to bloom
🗺️ Hardiness Zone: 4–9
🦋 Wildlife Value: Larval host for Monarch, Queen, and Soldier butterflies; nectar source for bees, hummingbirds, moths, and native bees; Xerces Society special value to native and bumble bees; deer resistant
⚠️ Planting note: Deep taproot — plant in ground promptly after receiving; takes one season to establish and may die back before returning strongly in year two