Several months back I started narrowleaf milkweed plants (seeds from livemonarch.com). About a week ago I noticed the first caterpillar, and the next day the second. Today the one at the top of the photo left the plant and started looking for a spot to pupate. Also today, found 4 (!!) more caterpillars amongst the plants. I am beyond thrilled, I never expected to get monarchs actually laying eggs on these plants so soon.


I’d advise caution and make sure independently that the species you’re buying is native rather than trusting a company’s website because they can sometimes play a little fast and loose with what’s native… I get why, it’s hard to research the particulars of every plant you offer and to gate them off to some people cuts into the money when native plants are kind of a niche market anyway, and some people have looser definitions of native plants than others.
But for example, if I go to that website I am zoned for where they would send Asclepias syriaca.
However, if I open up Flora of the Southeastern United States which is a very authoritative and updated resource on determining if a plant is native to my region or not, it turns out that Asclepias syriaca is actually not native to my entire state. Perhaps not the worst non-native, but not something I would personally want to be planting when there are many native alternatives I can buy instead that fully integrate with my local ecosystem.
Also, even for states where it is indeed native, you have to consider site conditions. So for instance they provide Asclepias incarnata to northern Florida which is indeed native there (assuming it’s the pulchra subspecies, which may or may not be the case since they don’t say) but it’s called “swamp” milkweed in part because it needs moist or wet conditions common in places like marshes bogs and swamps. There are plenty of areas with conditions like those in north Florida, but if you try to plant that in dry & sandy conditions which are also abundant in north Florida that poor plant will have a terrible time of it due to the site conditions despite being native to the region. I have a dry sandhills site with STRONG sun for instance so I would want to focus on getting a milkweed that can thrive in those conditions rather than needing to be on constant life support to barely make it.
We have the same issue with California. It’s a huge state with a wide variance in climate, plants, soil types, etc but we tend to be treated as one region.