Cinderella is a native swamp milkweed that offers about three months of vanilla-scented, rose pink flowers in large clusters from midsummer into early fall. Deadheading the first round brings another flush about a month later.
The flowers are loaded with nectar and pollen, drawing monarchs and other butterflies, hummingbirds and bees, and the leaves feed monarch caterpillars. It grows three to five feet tall and is easy care in sunny spots with average to wet soil, including rain gardens and pond edges. Deer leave it alone.
What it looks like
Rounded, flat-topped clusters 3 to 4 inches across of many small, star-shaped flowers in rose pink with paler pink crowns, held at the tips of tall, branching stems. Leaves are narrow, lance-shaped, smooth and medium green, paired along stiff, upright stems. The plant is an upright, vase-shaped clump 3 to 5 feet tall and 1 to 3 feet wide. At peak bloom the top of the plant is dotted with pink clusters busy with butterflies. Slender upright seed pods follow.
Growing it with lavender
Swamp milkweed likes sun but wants much more moisture than lavender, so plant it in a rain garden, near a downspout or along a pond edge rather than in the dry lavender bed.
Care
Grow in full sun in average to consistently moist soil; it thrives in wet spots but adapts to ordinary garden soil. Hardy in USDA zones 3-9. It emerges late in spring, so mark its location; deadhead the first flowers to encourage a second bloom.
At a glance
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Botanical name: Asclepias incarnata
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Flower color: Rose pink
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Foliage: Medium green
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Growth habit: Upright, vase-shaped clump
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Mature size: 36 in–5 ft tall × 12–36 in wide
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USDA hardiness zones: 3–9
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Light: full sun
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Bloom start: Early-July
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Peak bloom: Late-July
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Bloom pattern: Long Blooming
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Deer resistance: Resistant
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Pollinator value: Excellent
Sizes and shipping
Dormant bare-root plant, sold in boxes of 25 per variety (order in multiples of 25). Bare-root plants ship or are picked up March 1–May 31 only. They are soil-free, so they may ship to every state in that window. Dormant plants often show little or no top growth on arrival; plant or heel them in promptly.