Located along Clear Creek just six miles east of downtown Hendersonville, Milkweed Meadows is a 5th generation family farm. Its grassy bottomlands once nourished cows that produced milk sold to Biltmore Dairy Farms in Asheville. Today, the meadows are yielding milk of a different kind - milkweed plants to help sustain monarch butterflies!
THE FARM AND THE FARMER
An avid wildlife habitat gardener and environmental educator for over 25 years, farmer Kim Bailey has a true passion for pollinators. Over the past years, she has been expanding the farm's natural habitats for native milkweed species and planting additional host plants for other butterflies.
Living tunnels of passionvines, pipevines, climbing milkweeds, and hops vines benefit a diversity of species while an orchard of over 100 pawpaw trees specifically nurture zebra swallowtail larvae.
Milkweed Meadows Farm currently produces native wildflower seeds, open-pollinated heirloom vegetable seeds, pollinator-friendly potted plants, cut flowers, and specialty fruits. Educational programs and/or farm tours for groups are also periodically scheduled onsite.
PLANT SALES & PROGRAMS
Find Milkweed Meadows Farm selling pollinator-friendly potted plants and/or teaching at these upcoming events:
Saturday, April 11 (Times TBD)
Gardening for Life Project - Spring Native Plant Sale
Congregational Church, UCC, 210 Melrose Ave, Tryon, NC
Saturday, April 25, 12 - 5 PM
Blue Ridge Artisan Market Earth Day Festival
Trailside Brewing Co., 873 Lenox Park Dr., Hendersonville, NC
Friday, May 15 (12 - 5 PM) & Saturday, May 16 (9 AM - 2 PM)
Asheville Botanical Garden Spring Plant Sale
151 W.T. Weaver Blvd., Asheville, NC
Friday, May 29 - Sunday, May, 31
Gardening for Butterflies, Bees, Moths, & Hummingbirds (Weekend Course) - 2 spaces remaining!
John C. Campbell Folk School, One Folk School Road, Brasstown, NC
Explore the life cycles, habitat needs, and importance of our native bees, butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds. Learn how to create a garden, planter, or yard that's not just friendly to pollinators, but irresistibly beautiful! Practice plant propagation techniques, including growing native plants, to attract monarchs. Build a unique hummingbird fountain, butterfly puddling station, or native bee nesting hotel and return home with plants to further enhance your pollinator habitat. Registration is required. Discounted tuition is available to teachers, military personnel, and young adults.
Tuesday, September 1, 6 PM - 7:30 PM
Certified Pollinator Advocate (CPA) Course: All About Monarchs & Their Migration
Asheville Botanical Garden, 151 W.T. Weaver Blvd., Asheville, NC
Talk about picky eaters! Monarch butterflies have captured the imagination of young and old with their exclusive milkweed diet and unfathomable migration from Canada to Mexico. This class will cover everything from milkweed seed collection and stratification to species options for different settings, dangers of tropical milkweed, the milkweed insect community, raising monarchs responsibly, reporting monarch sightings, and tagging monarchs. Registration is required.
Wednesday, October 14
WNC Gardening Symposium
Blue Ridge Community College, 180 W Campus Dr, Flat Rock, NC
Symposium registration is required.
TBD 2027
Migration of the Monarch Butterflies in Mexico Trip (2026 trip itinerary provided as an example)
Morelia, Angangueo, & Macheros, Mexico
(Sierra Chincua, El Rosario, and Cerro Pelón Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserves)
CONTACT US TO...
- Make a nursery appointment to purchase potted plants at the farm (typically available May - October).
- Schedule a farm tour and/or onsite educational program for your garden club, classroom, or other group ($15 per person, $150 minimum). Kim may also be available to give presentations or teach classes/workshops on monarch butterfly ecology, gardening for pollinators, etc. at your location.
***Currently no availability spring - summer 2026.***
- Contract for “grow to order” pollinator-friendly plants available in 5” deep 38-plug flats or quart containers (8-12 weeks’ notice needed, depending on species) or bulk seed production.
***Sold out for spring - summer 2026.*** - Request butterfly eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalides (as naturally available April - September) for your classroom, public garden/arboretum, or other educational organization. Butterflies are always free. Host plants (to feed caterpillars) are available for purchase.
- Purchase native passionfruit (AKA maypop) or pawpaw fruit (typically available starting in September) for fresh eating, brewing/fermentation, or restaurant/culinary creations. Buckets of fresh-cut flowers may be available for weddings, celebrations, etc. from May - October.
Individual packets of milkweed seeds and certain open-pollinated heirloom vegetable seeds grown at Milkweed Meadows Farm are available from Sow True Seed.