Hi muddy....my butterfly weed seems to send runners underground....but as for the seed pods I clip them off because I don't NEED anymore! With their cousins incarnata I have found that once the seeds dry out I need to sow them very shallow and yet keep them damp/wet til they sprout....You may want to try both starting now and sowing some seeds to be handled next Spring by nature. I find orphans here and there from the wind blowing the seeds forgotten.
Good luck! I got a yellow version this year and have enjoyed it in another venue than it's orange sibling. I like the more bushy compact habit.
"Nature does not hurry yet everything is accomplished." - Lao Tau "There is more to life than increasing it's speed." - Gandhi
Muddy, back in the old days, when I lived in Ill....close to the same conditions as you...they came up the next spring from seeds the winds scattered the fall before. If a whole pod got covered up before the wind blew the seeds...I think every seed came up! I would scatter a few now & cover very lightly w/soil and save some to plant in the spring. Do a google seach & see what that says.
"The soil is the source of life, creativity, culture and real independence." David Ben-Gurion
Muddy I am in SE Michigan think it's zone 5.... . This year one orphan that came up we dug and relocated. I dug a large whole around it but wouldn't you know some came up a month later...it did transplant well after some TLC but once established has done better each season in size and bloom. This was the first year though that Monarchs laid eggs on it...and once the cats taste regular milkweed there's no going back!!!
"Nature does not hurry yet everything is accomplished." - Lao Tau "There is more to life than increasing it's speed." - Gandhi
. This year one orphan that came up we dug and relocated. I dug a large whole around it but wouldn't you know some came up a month later...it did transplant well after some TLC but once established has done better each season in size and bloom. This was the first year though that Monarchs laid eggs on it...and once the cats taste regular milkweed there's no going back!!! 
