NOTE: This article is one in a series of articles by Bill Cullina.

The genus Liatris (blazing star, gayfeather) has always been a favorite of mine. I can remember as a child being intrigued by the cut flowers of prairie blazing star (Liatris pycnostachya) in a florist’s arrangement—particularly their habit of opening from the top down on the spike. Prairie blazing star along with its close cousin marsh gayfeather (Liatris spicata) has been in cultivation in the U.S. and Europe since the 19^th century, and these two are the primary species encountered in gardens. Both sport the broomstick-thick spikes of lavender flowers atop tall stems bristling with narrow leaves. They are certainly wonderful, carefree garden perennials. However, there is a host of other gayfeathers to choose from in our flora.

The genus is comprised of 37 species native to the eastern two thirds of North America. Based on this relatively narrow distribution, it is likely that Liatris is a fairly recently evolved and evolving genus that has flourished since the rise of the Rocky Mountains that finally shut off the flow of Pacific Moisture to the interior of the continent about 20 million years ago and created the vast grasslands that dominate the region.   

Habitats of the blazing star

Most of the species are found in the Southeastern and Central United States, in moist-to-dry or rocky grassland habitats where fire and lack of moisture discourage the woody vegetation that would otherwise shade them out. There is but one species in densely forested New England, Liatris scariosa var. novaeangliae (New England blazing star), which inhabits the small belt of sandy coastal grasslands along the Atlantic coast from southern Maine to New Jersey. It is related to the more widespread Liatris scariosa var. nieuwlandii found primarily around the Great Lakes east to New York. Though small and stunted in its fire-prone native habitat, New England blazing star, in the garden, grows to three or four feet and puts on quite a show in August.

Like most of the species in the genus, it survives fire and winter as a dense cluster of knobby corms dotted with buds that grow into new stems. The mass of corms lies just at or under the soil surface and may live for many years if not eaten by voles or killed by fire or fungal rot that can set in if the tissues are damaged or exposed to excessive moisture. Most of the roots die off in the fall so that the corms can be easily dug and transplanted from October through April.

A “button” type flower

New England blazing star is one of the “button” types—with flowers amassed in discreet round heads that alternate up the top of each stem. Like all members of the aster family (Asteraceae), each “flower” is really a composite of a number of small flowers (in this case about 50) bunched together in a larger posy. The large, composite “flower” is easier for pollinators to see than lots of individual blooms as they buzz or flutter by, and once alighted, a bee or butterfly can sip from a dozen or more of the small individual flowers without moving more than a few millimeters on the large, comfortable platform.

To hold all those small flowers together, each cluster is backed by a set of scales or bracts called “phyllaries” that protect the developing bud, which then peel back to expose the flowers as they open before closing again to shelter the developing seeds. Only when the seeds are mature do the phyllaries peel back completely and dry to free slender, slate gray seeds that float away on the wind thanks to a bristly little parachute called the “pappus.” One unusual species from the longleaf pine savannah of the Southeastern U.S. has phyllaries that assume the color of the flowers to further advertise the blooms.

Liatris elegans (pinkscale) is a dainty plant with small clusters of flowers set in a whorl of five pale pink, pinwheeling phyllaries. Another unusual thing about pinkscale is its color. Almost all of the species produce flowers with a strong lavender or violet hue. Only Liatris elegans and the equally distinctive Liatris acidota (sharp blazing star) from the bayous of Louisiana and Texas have blooms that tend more toward grayish pink. Occasionally, white or albino individuals can be found within any of the species, and among the cultivated types, white forms are readily available. Cultivars such as Liatris spicata ‘Floristan White’ are very popular, and for many years we sold a form of New England blazing star with flowers of very pale lavender we called ‘Semi-alba’ (not one of my most creative cultivar names).

Back in 2001, I even discovered a variegated Liatris seedling (probably a form of Liatris pilosa) that I named ‘Ivory Towers.’ I had high hopes for a while that this would be the New England Wild Flower Society introduction, after Polemonium ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ but alas the variegation never stabilized: Some shoots would come up white, others green, and others half and half. I even tried raising seedlings from ‘Ivory Towers’ for several years and though we got over a dozen variegated ones out of the lot, all exhibited the same unstable type of variegation (called “mericlinal variegation”) as the parent, so we abandoned the project.

For your garden

Though Liatris pycnostachya and L. spicata continue to be garden favorites because of their adaptability, cold tolerance, and spectacular bloom, there are a number of other species that deserve attention from gardeners. Our New England blazing star is an interesting and less formal plant in the garden, and if sited in a well-drained soil it will thrive for many years (Please note: Because Liatris scariosa var. novaeangliae is a species of special concern in Massachusetts, it is illegal to collect plants or seeds from the wild. However, the New England Wild Flower Society regularly sells plants and seeds from our stock cultivated at Garden in the Woods for 20 years).

About five years ago I received seed of a form of Liatris pilosa (grass-leaved blazing star) from the Mount Cuba Center (Greenville, Delaware), and it has proven to be an excellent garden plant here in Massachusetts. Grass-leaved blazing star (formerly know as L. graminifolia) grows in sandy soils and dunes along the coast from New Jersey to South Carolina, but it thrives in average garden loam. After four years, the clumps become quite large and look lovely in mid-August when decked out with wands of lavender blooms.

This brings up an important point: Each species of blazing star blooms at a different time during the summer. Thus, even though each flowers for only two to three weeks, if you plant four or five different ones, you can have plants in bloom from July to frost. The last to flower for us is Liatris squarrulosa (southern gayfeather), coming into bloom in September as the first leaves begin to color on neighboring trees and shrubs. We have grown it for about ten years, but because of its southern provenance it is not as winter-hardy as most of the others mentioned here. Similarly, Liatris elegans and other southern species such as Liatris microcephala (smallhead gayfeather), and Liatris laevigata (clusterleaf gayfeather) fail to emerge after a cold, snowless winter in Massachusetts. On the other hand, Liatris pilosa is cold hardy to at least USDA zone 5 and the others mentioned elsewhere in this article should be hardy to zone 4 (or even 3 with adequate snow cover).

I would be remiss to mention one last species because it’s a true miracle in the garden. Liatris ligulistylis (meadow blazing star) is a button type from the prairies of the upper Midwest and Canada that grows in moist-to-somewhat dry soils. It blooms in late July into August, just about the time the monarch butterflies return in their great annual migration north. It must emit a pheromone irresistible to monarchs because they will pass over every other flower in the garden and descend on this species by the dozens. It is quite a site to see a cloud of newly minted orange butterflies flitting about the lavender blooms of this one perennial. The butterflies have even followed customers into their cars as they were leaving Garden in the Woods with blooming plants from our sales area! 

Raising blazing stars

Blazing stars are easily raised from seed and often bloom their first year. We collect seed once the pappus fluffs out in late summer or fall, then dry the seed indoors for a few days before placing it in a paper envelope in the refrigerator.

• To germinate, the seeds require about 12 weeks of cold, moist conditions. You can sow the seeds in the ground or in pots in late fall, placing the pots in a cold frame or other protected spot until winter has passed. Or you can mix the seeds with a handful of moistened vermiculite, sphagnum moss, or sand in a sealed plastic bag, place it in the refrigerator for three months, and then in spring sow the lot in a pot or in the garden.
• Seedlings emerge with a pair of fleshy cotyledons (seed leaves) once the weather warms. After a few days, a single grass-like leaf grows from their center, followed quickly by another and another until each little plant looks like a tuft of grass.
• We transplant the seedlings once the first grass-like leaf is visible because at this stage the root system is still small and less easily damaged. If transplanted into individual pots or directly into the garden, the seedlings will grow into a big leafy clump that may even send up a flowering stem or two by the end of the summer.
•  All the blazing stars perform best with at least four hours of direct sun. With the exception of Liatris spicata and a few others that can tolerate wet soils, they prefer well-drained, moist-to-somewhat-dry conditions and a soil that is slightly acidic to neutral in pH.

The spiky shape and soft texture of the blazing stars blends well with many other wildflowers and grasses, whether in a formal perennial border or a naturalized meadow. The plants rarely, if ever, need dividing, and I let them go to seeds before cutting back the yellowed stems to the ground in late fall so they can self-sow.

I hope you will give a few of these wonderful plants a try in your own garden—you will not be disappointed.