i just love blazing stars! i have one variety but couldn't seem to get a good picture. i planted 3 croms last year and got two bloom stalks this year so far. i hope to get some white ones soon as mine are purple. thanks : )
kelly
show off your blazing stars : )
Hi Kelly,
Mine are JUST starting to think about turning purple so no pictures yet. I love them too. A woman down the street lines both sides of her long driveway with them and it looks incredible when they are in bloom!!!
Megan
Pardon me, exactly what are blazing stars? They sound pretty.
It's one of those great plants to confuse people with as I will to refer to them as gayfeather,blazing star and liatris interchangeably to garden visitors. Mine are close :)
I think this is what your talking abt. Dixie
good photo oriole!
yup, no purple for me yet, but I'm in a fairly cool climate.....
Yes, then, I have had a love affair going with liatris for several years...
I love them and have about four kinds in our garden. The birds and butterflies love 'em, too! And so easy to plant from corms....
I notice they are showing up more often in the nurseries these days, too.
I would be interested to see how people have used these in their garden. I grew some from seed last year (wintersown). They lived in their little pots all of last year and finally made it into the ground this spring. I planted a grouping of 5 and they have started to bloom. They seem a little sparse now, but I assume they will fill out some more in the coming years. How many flower stalks will one plant send up?
- Brent
Brent, sorry I cant help you. I grew mine from seed. 2nd yr.in bed. Pic above. Dixie
Here's a picture of some of mine. I have it everywhere, but I love the combination with black eyed susans
oh that is nice. I cant get a showing of blackeyed susan or I would do that. Dixie
ohhhhh how nice and pretty! great combo!!
kelly
I like them with rudbeckia hirta 'prairie moon' and daisies, too. I think they are spectacular with daylilies.
I haven't tried them from seed, but they are easy for me to grow from corms.
From my experience they need to be in well draining soil through the winter, though, if you want them to come back.
If they like their garden spot they will multiply from year to year. I have about 8 shoots coming from one I planted 2 years ago. Others never came back. Some people say they are invasive, but I have never found that so. The more the merrier in my garden.
Don't really have mine combined right now
White is nice too.
I have the 'Fluoristan White', they look like Al's but are 3 to 5 feet tall. I started them from seed about 15 years ago.
They were initially planted with hardy Hibiscus and Columbine in a street side bed (now defunct). I was surprised to see the size and complexity of the corms when I dug them up at age 8 years.
They are a snap to transplant in Autumn or early Spring. One Fall I dug up so many I couldn't use them all and left them in a pile (unplanted) in the garden. The next Spring they were fine and ready to pot up as gifts. Tough little things.
Volunteer seedlings look like grass, keep an eye out for them. I dead head mine after they bloom, leaving a nice 'grassy' mound, neat.
Mine are about a week away from blooming now.
An interesting fact is they start blooming from the top.
Andy P
the white ones are so pretty! i haven't seen a picture of the white before. thanks for sharing : )
kelly
Since we're on the topic of Liatris, I want to add this link from the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. The article gives information on propagation of liatris, other liatris cultivars and suggestions for companion plants.
http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/plants/2002su_liatris.html
t, your garden looks absolutely gorgeous! I love the way you've designed it.
I love the contrast in form liatris provides. And like some of you have said, they are particularly nice with rudbeckia, and echinacea too.
Long shot of same garden:
I have found that some of the seedlings of my Whites are purple.
Andy P
Funny...just yesterday I noticed that some of my seed grown plants are blooming white. I was given the seeds, so I don't know what color the parent was.
- Brent
I just had great fun watching this tiger swallowtail enjoy some liatris.
It did'nt seem to mind my presence at all. See the little one flying in to enjoy the feast?
This message was edited Jul 21, 2006 4:20 PM
I kept pushing it to see how close I could get.
There were 2 others, a Monarch and a Great Spangled Frittilery, that were evidently camera shy, enjoying the liatris as well.
ohhhhhhhh i love those butterfly picts! how nice : ) thanks for sharing! those would be pretty blown up and framed.
kelly
Gem-- Love your pics of the butterflies. I am wondering if your liatris is 'spicata' or one of the others mentioned in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens article
http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/plants/2002su_liatris.html
Has anyone seen liatris other than 'spicata', 'kobold', and 'floristan white' for sale in the garden centers?
I have seen rarer varieties offered in some of the mail order catalogs--High Country, etc.--
Just wondering what's in the garden centers across the country.
Here is a close-up of a Fluoristan white.
They are very delicate when seen like this.
Taken today.
Andy P
i love the white!
kelly
Thanks all! I was amazed, since I have so much trouble staying still enough to get a decent shot of something that does'nt move, lol. I believe those are L.spicata. A friend of mine has them naturalized all over his yard; they show up everywhere- unlike anything I've ever seen. I've seen them occur in the wild around here from time to time, but there were other ornamentals there when my friend bought his place, so not really sure if they're wild or escaped from the garden.
I've only seen the less common varieties in catalogs too.
I divided a few clumps of liatris in April and it filled out into a nice backdrop for my bay window.
Here is another shot.
very pretty! i love that last shot! nice bed.
kelly
garden obsession! I LOVE your use of liatris in your bay window garden! So dramatic with your purple-y petunias and variegated foliage plants and window boxes.
Did you start those from corms? And do they return for you each year?
This summer garden planting of liatris and daylilies was really eyecatching in the front garden of an herb farm I visited last month.
how pretty those daylilies look with the liatris! it makes those daylilies color pop!
kelly
Thanks everyone! It is so nice to get feedback. This garden bed was started from scratch this year using some plants from other parts of my garden, some new stuff, some annuals, and a lot of morning glory that self-seeded from last year. I just endured a 2 year renovation of my house including re-siding the exterior of the house. Needless to say, the workers were not very careful and trampled on my azaleas that were pretty ragged looking anyway. Gave me a good reason to rip them out.
Your idea about combining with daylilies is a good one. I have the following daylilies planted and 1-2 scapes on each (Cranberry Coulis, Bela Lugosi, Night Meteor, Plum Cake, Daring Deception, and Edge of Darkness). I just haven't manage to get a photo when lighting was good, it wasn't raining, and a bloom had just opened. Will continue to try - have a few blooms left. I have some hardy geranium, crimson scabiosa, and garden mums in the front. The mid-border has a variety of lilies so that the stems are hidden, backed by the liatris. Here is a look at what this garden bed looked like before the remodeling.
Re: starting liatris from corms - bought a dozen or so few years back and just continued dividing over and over again. They hold up real well to all the disruption. All the liatris in my bay window came from 2-3 clumps that I divided into small sprigs. I just lined them along the back and was supprised to see them fill in so nicely in one season. After they have finished blooming, the foliage will stay pretty nice and tidy thru the fall.
Tabasco, the yellow daylilies look wonderful against the purple. Nice picture. It is nice to have all that space!