I know you don't need or want as many as you have, but I'm jealous! Mine never seem to reseed. I have fairly good success winter-sowing them, but as far as reseeding out in the garden, nada. But maybe this is one of those "be careful what you wish for" situations, lol?

:)
Dee

Hi Dee!

I am thinking that every seed took this year due to the extreme rainfall amounts that we have had. Almost 10 inches this past month! I love liatris and I will certainly leave the ones that are near my current batch. Problem is that they are growing at the base of everything! LOL.

Ken

this tendency is what can make something invasive ....

one would wonder.. where the birds planted the rest of the seeds ....

ken

Well not really an issue in this case because first of all Liatris is native to North America, not on any invasive lists that I am aware of, and I believe the worst bird spread invasives are things with fleshy fruits.

Just because something seeds around a lot doesn't make it invasive.

Ken, I forgot to add that I do know how you feel - or at least how you felt at that moment of discovery, lol. I grew foxgloves a few years back and let them go to seed to get more. I didn't see anything, not a single seedling. A few weeks later, there were THOUSANDS of foxglove seedlings! Holy Cow is right!

Well, maybe not thousands, but definitely hundreds. I ended up giving away literally hundreds of them, and still had tons of them in my yard. But boy, were they beautiful that year!

:)
Dee

You are right that it is not considered a North American invasive plant, but I guess in terms of my little somewhat planned garden it could be considered invasive in a weird sort of way. I do let things spread out and naturalize to a point.

I'm surprised the birds didn't eat the seeds. All my liatris were stripped clean of their seeds by the birds this winter.

And to think I've got liatris seeds in a wintersow milkjug that haven't sprouted...

Deanna

They seed more than I'd like here too. The blooms don't last very long here and they aren't one of my favorites. Must be our weather, I know in drier parts of the country they bloom for weeks.

This is interesting to me as I'm about to re-do my front garden. I have a few spots that haven't had a plant specified yet. I've always wanted to grow Liatris but the dang bunnies eat them to the ground out back, but rarely touch stuff out front.
Perhaps I should get a pack of seeds and see what happens!
Anyone know if they'll flower in their first year?

Hi Melissa,

Funny... the rabbits don't touch mine at all. Maybe we have different rabbits. The plants that they do eat I put a little garlic powder around the base of the plant as soon as I see the damage. They don't return too quickly and sometimes not at all.

Anyways... I had a few liatris seedlings sprout last year and at first I thought they were nutsedge, but after comparing the seedling to both nutsedge and liatris I determined it was the liatris. This year they came up looking like the mature liatris, so I would say it will take the second year to get flowers. Perhaps someone can confirm.

Ken

That's true - you don't get flowers the first year.

Do you by any chance have a picture of your liatris seedlings? Huggergirl sent me some liatris bulbs a few weeks ago and I planted them right away, and I planted them where a Stella Dora plant had been dug up last year. It seems these have sprouted in past week. I think it is her liatris but my husband thinks it could be the stella d'ora coming back. I want it to be liatris!

Here's a link with a seedling picture (ok, maybe a teenage seedling). I would think the Stellas have a thicker base and would come up as a larger clump than a newbie liatris would. Just my two cents.

Here is a link that might be useful: liatris seedling

Hi Pippi21!

I'll try to get out my camera tomorrow and take a shot. I hope I remember my photobucket password!

The link that Singleton posted shows a liatris plant in the same year that it started from "seed" and it is just about the biggest it will get in that first year. I am no plant expert, but I believe the first year the plant works on developing the bulb. My seedlings at this moment are much smaller than the link posted. It is really two small leaves and one blade coming up between those leaves and they are about an inch tall at the moment.

Yours would not look like the link above as when they come up from a bulb they are different. Hopefully I will post a photo tomorrow, you can do the same if you have a camera.

Ken

I used the 'winter sowing' method this year for liatris and the milk jug is filled with seedlings. In fact, everything I winter sowed this year is now germinated except for the blueberries. (I planted 50 jugs this year so will have my hands full transplanting everything --- but, how fun!)

If you haven't yet tried it, check out the Winter Sowing forum.

Just came here to see if anyone had complained of the annoyance I am dealing with now. Liatris seedlings (complete with a cute little bulblet) EVERWHERE. They've gotten into adjacent beds separated by a patio even. Must have a hundred seedling.
Plus, the clump I dug up and discarded in a pot (no dirt) is growing like it is fine. Fertile and hard to kill it seems.

Back in zone 4 I had to rebuy these every year! I guess I will start shipping them as presents to my friends and family in zone 4.

Invite a rabbit or two into your yard. The rabbits absolutely LOVE Liatris seedlings and manage to find most of them in my back garden even when they're hidden amongst numerous other plants and seedlings. And if the rabbits don't get them when they're small, the voles also love their roots when they get larger! The critters will happily do the weeding for you, haha.

Sigh- If only!! but I worry those wascally wabbits will chew my woses.

Around here, rabbits seem to really love liatris. They killed the first one I planted by eating it down to a nub. My style is to be "live and let live" with wildlife, so I would actually be happy to have tons of liatris around here so that the bunnies could have a bit without me losing it!