Wildflower Wednesday: There Are Wildflowers That Like to Challenge the Boundaries!

At Clay and Limestone we call several of them good friends and Conoclinium coelestinum is one of the best!

Conoclinium coelestinum

This rough and tumble wildflower makes gardening on my shallow, too often dry garden soil worth the effort! It's an enthusiastic growers but, I decided years ago that a plant with lovely fuzzy lilac flowers that attracts bumbles, small bees, skippers and was a host plant to several moths was worth my having to pull out a few errant plants.

Yes, given the right conditions it can be an enthusiastic colonizer. It begins blooming in late August (Middle South) and continues through early fall and into October. The fuzzy appearing lilac-blue flowers add a softness to my late summer and fall garden when the Susans, Goldenrods, Cup Plant, Verbesinas, Joe-Pye weeds and Ironweeds are making a large and loud scene. It's especially beautiful when allowed to naturalize and make its own big statement.

There's the rub, you have to be willing to let blue mistflower do its thing to get the big effect of its lovely misty presence. That means living with the rough, but not unattractive leaves until the summer wains and the blooming begins.

The tall red stems are place holders while you're waiting and trust me the wait is worth it. I think they're quite attractive.

I discovered it years ago in the front garden where all the Susans once reigned supreme. The lilac blue blossoms against the pale green foliage was spectacular. It was an especially wet summer and I have to make a point to keep it watered if I want those delightful fuzzy blooms. It never disappears but it is lovelier when the soil is consistently moist.

Doesn't it look smashing with the gold flowers of Gaillardia? You can use it anywhere. I like it with the Rudbeckias, Coreopsis, the ex-asters and I'm thinking that it would be nice with grasses or edging the woodland garden. It's a perfect plant for a meadow, a pond edging, naturalized in a wet area. The possibilities are endless...except extremely dry soil.

compact corymbs or clusters  with up to 70 flowers per cluster

It's a shame that many gardeners under appreciate the charms of rough and tumble colonizers like Hardy Ageratum. Like many of the species related to Eupatorium, blue mistflower is a copious nectar producer and attracts butterflies of many species. When in more open areas, monarchs will spend a lot of time feeding on this plant, especially if near milkweeds. I've seen skippers, swallowtails and bees visiting the nectar-rich flowers, while birds goldfinches, juncos, and sparrows, are known to feed on the seeds, which also offer nesting material and cover for wildlife. If you want more, and once you see it massed you will, it's easily propagated from seeds, cuttings, rootball divisions or layering. It thrives best in a well-drained acidic to neutral soils in a sunny environment. If you want easy care this is a great wildflower, but, it does naturalize easily spreading by rhizome and seed (and is pulled out just as easily).  

If you have the space and temperament to let this plant go, please do. Conoclinium coelestinum is a plant that looks its best when allowed to naturalize. Cut it back in mid summer to keep it looking bushy and beautiful, and then let it do its beautiful thing.

 xoxogail

PS If you want to provide for fall pollinators you must never, ever, ever, ever, use pesticides in your garden. I mean never!

 

 

Family: Asteraceae

Botanical name: Conoclinium coelestinum

Common Names: Ageratum, Blue Boneset, Blue Mistflower,  Hardy Ageratum, Mistflower Wild Ageratum   

Life Cycle: Perennial

Native range: 

source

 USDA hardiness zones 5 through 10

Flower Color: Blue, Pink, Purple/Lavender 

Flower Inflorescence: Corymb 

Value To Gardener: Long bloom season     

Height: 1 ft. 6 in. - 3 ft. 0 in.     

Width: 1 ft. 6 in. - 3 ft. 0 in. 

Aspect: It grows in full sun to part shade such as low woods, wet meadows, and ditches.  

Bloom Time: Fall 

Flower Size: < 1 inch 

Flower Description: Flat-topped clusters of disc flowers that lack rays. It has numerous small, fluffy, tubular, blue-purple flowers (to 1/ 2” across) and blooms from July to October.

Stem Color: Green, Purple/Lavender, Red/Burgundy

Stems and leaves: Stems are clothed in pairs of attractive triangular, ovate or heart shaped leaves. 

Maintenance: Medium to high care due to water needs and possible need to edit it 

Propagation Strategy: Division, Root Cutting and Seed

Wildlife Value: Host plant to 13 specialist moths, including Eastern tailed-blue, hackberry emperor, American snout and aster flowerhead caterpillar. Mistflower provides abundant nectar for monarchs, swallowtails, queens, soldiers, pearl crascents, white peacocks, little yellows, and many other butterflies. Attracts native bees and skippers. 

Comments: Like many of the species related to Eupatorium, blue mistflower is a copious nectar producer and attracts butterflies of many species. Can be confused with Fleischmannia incarnata another member of the Eupatorium tribe Excellent in a meadow,  naturalized area, a pond edge, butterfly garden, native garden, pollinator garden, and mass planted. 

This species is pest resistant and foliage is unpalatable to deer and other herbivores.    

 

Thank you for stopping by and welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. WW is about sharing and celebrating wildflowers from all over this great big, beautiful world. Join us on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Remember, it doesn't matter if your wildflower is in bloom or not; and, it never matters if we all share the same plants.

  

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener, Tennessee Naturalist and nature writer in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.