The "Family Jewels" Milkweed tree

As you may remember from a November post, we inherited a large Asclepias physocarpa "Family Jewels Tree" milkweed from a friend whose garden plot the tree was overtaking.

It had produced hundreds of seed pods, which were collected first.

Branches had to be sawed off to even fit it in the car, because it was at least 6 feet tall and almost as wide. We weren't sure if the plant would survive the trauma of being dug out, losing some roots and being severely pruned.

Well, so far it seems happy in a large flower pot, and is now sprouting tiny new leaves.

It will be interesting to see how big it will get and how many monarch caterpillars we will find on it next summer.

Here is the milkweed tree when we brought it home to our patio in November.