Showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) has purple-pink flowers but likes well-drained soil. Plants for a Future database (www.pfaf.org) says the plant's flowerbuds taste like peas when cooked. This one can become invasive if allowed to seed at will.

Prairie milkweed or smooth milkweed, Asclepias sullivantii, has pink-burgundy flowers on 2 foot tall stems in moist soil. This one is an Oklahoma native that is threatened because its numbers are so low. The seedpods are collected and used in dried flower arrangements.

Common milkweed, A. syriaca, is a native in more than half of the U.S. They grow to 5 feet tall with fragrant lavender flowers. Can become a weed in good soil.

Whorled milkweed (A. verticillata) has threadlike leaves and white flowers.

Dobbs recommends taking tip cuttings to root at the end of the summer. Keep the plants going indoors over the winter and plant them next spring.

Deadheading can prolong the flowering season. Remove flowers as they fade so the plant will continue to produce more buds.

Gardeners often allow a few seed pods to form. In the spring put the floss and seeds outside. The birds will use the floss for their nests and the seeds will sprout to make plants.

Useful resources for native plants can be found at www.missouriplants.com, www.kswildflower.org, and Oklahoma Native Plant Society at www.usao.edu/~onps/.