Plant of the week: Tweedia caerulea

Several months ago I was given a single pod of Tweedia caerulea,  a plant which I grew and then dismissed maybe a decade ago.  From that one pod I sowed and planted out at least three flats of 4" plants,  There were even more but I eventually came to my senses.  I planted out a bunch,  my previous experience was that they were spindly plants.  I was very happy when I found them filling out nicely.  Tweedia is an Asclepias relative native to So. America, drought tolerant, small plants that you'll want to plant for their beautiful true sky blue flowers (almost immediately after planting even as immature plants).  And I don't know if you have noticed but true blue is hard to come by in this climate, also I think the bright light drowns out a lot of blues from being bluer, you can see this at sunset and sunrise. Anyway now I'm hooked, I plan to use them as filler plants since they perform with little water or care.  Another interesting aspect is that they attract the milkweed bug, which is supposed to feed on the seed (and there is a lot of seed) and doesn't hurt the plant.  They are a rich orange color with black,  and I love to see creatures in the garden.

Take a look!

Tweedia looking nice with boardwalk

Flower detail, notice cluster of milkweed bug instars on pod

Plant habit

Milkweed bug