Asclepias incarnata 'Ice Ballet'

'Ice Ballet' is loved by both humans and pollinators for its long-lasting clusters of vanilla-scented white flowers. The leaves are an essential food source for the caterpillars of the Monarch butterfly. Best grown in moist soils, but it is surprisingly tolerant of average garden soils as well. A long taproot makes this plant very difficult to transplant.

WARNING: Milky sap is toxic. Wear gloves when handling cut stems.

Zones: 3 to 9

Family: Apocynaceae

Type: Herbaceous Perennial

Height: 36 to 42 in.

Spread: 18 to 24 in.

Exposure: Full sun, semi-shade

Soil: moist, boggy, along streamsides, loamy

Bloom Time: July to August

Native Range: Eastern Canada and in every state in the United States except Arizona, Mississippi and states with a Pacific coastline

Image Credits:

• Image 1 (flowers) Photo by and (c)2009 Derek Ramsey (Ram-Man), GFDL 1.2 <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html>, via Wikimedia Commons
• Image 2 (foliage) Photo by David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
• Image 3 (monarch caterpillar on Asclepias) USFWSmidwest, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons