Golden Acre Home & Garden Centre's Plant Library

Other Names:  Butterfly Weed

Description:

A wonderful selection for attracting butterflies to garden beds and rain gardens; this upright selection features clusters of white fragrant flowers and green narrow foliage; a compact variety that is easy to grow, needing little to no maintenance

Ornamental Features

Ice Ballet Milkweed has lightly-scented white flat-top flowers at the ends of the stems from mid summer to early fall. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its narrow leaves remain green in colour throughout the season.

Landscape Attributes

Ice Ballet Milkweed is an herbaceous perennial with an upright spreading habit of growth. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and is best cleaned up in early spring before it resumes active growth for the season. It is a good choice for attracting butterflies to your yard, but is not particularly attractive to deer who tend to leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Ice Ballet Milkweed is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use
• Naturalizing And Woodland Gardens
• Bog Gardens

Planting & Growing

Ice Ballet Milkweed will grow to be about 3 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 32 inches. It tends to be leggy, with a typical clearance of 1 foot from the ground, and should be underplanted with lower-growing perennials. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years. As an herbaceous perennial, this plant will usually die back to the crown each winter, and will regrow from the base each spring. Be careful not to disturb the crown in late winter when it may not be readily seen!

This plant does best in full sun to partial shade. It is quite adaptable, prefering to grow in average to wet conditions, and will even tolerate some standing water. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is quite intolerant of urban pollution, therefore inner city or urban streetside plantings are best avoided. This is a selection of a native North American species. It can be propagated by division; however, as a cultivated variety, be aware that it may be subject to certain restrictions or prohibitions on propagation.