Butterfly Weed Plant Care. Butterfly weed asclepias tuberosa produces green foliage through spring and summer and clusters of small red orange or yellow flowers. Butterfly weed asclepias tuberosa is a showy orange flowering native perennial flower.
It grows 2 4 tall and will spread the same distance wide. Cutback the plant to the ground in fall after a frost and compost it. As far as appearance butterfly weed will bloom with cheerful orange blossoms that make beautiful cut flowers.
Butterfly weed plants asclepias tuberosa are trouble free north american natives that produce umbels of bright orange yellow or red blooms all summer long butterfly weed is appropriately named as the nectar and pollen rich flowers attract hummingbirds and hordes of butterflies bees and other beneficial insects throughout the blooming season.
This 2 to 3 foot tall perennial flowers through the summer and is one of several nectar sources for the adult monarch butterflies. It needs little care once established in the garden and can be drought tolerant. Department of agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 through 9 provides the sole food source for monarch butterfly caterpillars. Aphids can sometimes be a problem and are easily controlled with sprays of insecticidal soap.