Blazing star
Liatris spicata · Asteraceae
Bottle-brush spikes that open from the top down give a strong vertical accent among mounded plants. A prairie native that draws butterflies and bees.
- Size
- 3 ft tall, 16 in wide
- Zones
- 3 to 8
- Light
- Full sun
- Flowers
- Mid July to mid August
- Pets
- No toxicity recorded
- Job in a bed
- Accent
A bed built around blazing star
The planner designed this bed around blazing star when this page was made: a 12 × 6 ft (3.7 × 1.8 m) cottage garden in zone 6, full sun. It chose the other plants from the 966 that suit those conditions, and says below why blazing star stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 Blazing star × 4, purple
- 2 Creeping phlox 'Emerald Blue' × 6, blue
- 3 Coral bells 'Firefly' × 5, red
- 4 Brown-eyed Susan × 5, yellow
- 5 Inkberry 'Gem Box' × 1, dark green leaves
- 6 Wild quinine × 5, white
- 7 Hyacinth × 12, pink
- 8 Star of Persia × 5, purple
Why this plant
- Nothing here is unique to it. Its leaf, flower shape and colour are all on the plan already. Its case rests on where it stands and when it performs.
Why here
- In the middle. At 3 ft it is seen over inkberry 'Gem Box' (2½ ft) in front of it.
- A step in the back row. Next to star of Persia (20 in) and brown-eyed Susan (4 ft): no two neighbours there are the same height, so the back steps up and down like a skyline.
- 4 plants in 4 places. An accent is a punctuation mark: the repeat along the bed gives it rhythm.
Why now
- In flower for six weeks. From mid July to mid August.
- Part of the bed's peak. With coral bells 'Firefly', brown-eyed Susan and wild quinine in late July: 4 kinds at once. No week has more.
Planned as a cottage garden: 26 of the 26 plants (100%), bulbs aside, stand alone or in groups of no more than five, small enough for the kinds to mingle. The bed is balanced: the left half carries 50% of the visual weight and the right half 50%. Early colour comes from bulbs planted between the other plants: hyacinth.
The planner's own design check: 13 Excellent, 4 Good. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where blazing star goes in a border
At 3 ft it belongs in the middle of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is medium tall (2½ to 3 ft).
Its job: accent. An upright plant used singly, like a punctuation mark, and repeated at intervals to give the bed rhythm.
A slim exclamation mark that fits between mounded plants without crowding them. Dot it through a drift of something rounder; a solid block of it looks stiff.
- A narrow vertical accent that takes little room
- Prairie planting with grasses and coneflowers
- Butterfly gardens
What to plant with blazing star
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- Purple coneflower: in flower together for six weeks, from mid July.
- Little bluestem: its blue-green leaves are a setting for the flowers, before and after.
- Black-eyed Susan: purple against yellow, opposite each other on the colour wheel, in flower together for six weeks.
Questions about blazing star
Does blazing star need sun or shade?
Blazing star grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day).
It wants ordinary well-drained soil, of average fertility, and a good soak in dry spells.
What zones does blazing star grow in?
USDA zones 3 to 8. It is hardy to zone 3, which means it survives winter nights down to about −30 °F (−34 °C).
Above zone 8 it struggles: the zones measure winter cold, but a plant's top zone usually means the summers are too hot or the winters too mild for it to rest.
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
When does blazing star flower in my zone?
In zone 5 it flowers mid July to mid August. As a summer flower it moves about half a week for every zone: earlier where it is warmer.
| Zone 3 | Mid July to late August |
|---|---|
| Zone 4 | Mid July to late August |
| Zone 5 | Mid July to mid August |
| Zone 6 | Mid July to mid August |
| Zone 7 | Early July to early August |
| Zone 8 | Early July to early August |
Worked out from Hopkins' bioclimatic law: spring arrives about four days later for each degree of latitude north, and one zone is roughly two degrees. A warm spring or a cold one moves any garden two weeks either way.
How far apart should blazing star be planted?
12 in (30 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 16 in (40 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 3 ft (90 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many blazing star plants do I need?
At 12 in apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 12 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 11 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 38 to fill a 4 × 8 ft bed on its own
In a mixed border, plant it as one at a time, repeated along the bed at intervals; a slender one reads better as a clump of three.
In the bed above, the planner used four in four groups.
Is blazing star poisonous to dogs and cats?
No toxicity is recorded for dogs, cats, horses or people, according to NC State Extension.
"Not toxic" is not "edible": a pet that eats a lot of any plant can be sick.
Do deer eat blazing star?
They may. NC State does not list it as resistant to deer or rabbits. Where they visit, protect it, or plant it among ones they avoid.
What flowers after blazing star?
Blazing star is over by mid August. These start as it finishes and carry the same spot on, so it never goes flat:
- Garden chrysanthemum: from mid September to late October, 24 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Lilyturf: from early August to mid September, 16 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Sedum 'Autumn Joy': from mid August to mid October, 24 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
What does blazing star look like in winter?
Blazing star dies down, but leave the stems standing: the seed heads stand through the winter, and songbirds eat the seed. Cut them down in early spring, before the new shoots come.
Is blazing star good for bees and butterflies?
Blazing star is visited by bees, specialist bees, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds and songbirds.
It is a host plant: the caterpillars of liatris flower moth and liatris borer feed on its leaves. A butterfly can only lay its eggs on its host plants, so these do more for it than any nectar flower.
It is native to the United States and Canada.
More Liatris
- Blazing star 'Kobold' Liatris spicata 'Kobold'
- Meadow blazing star Liatris ligulistylis
- Prairie blazing star Liatris pycnostachya
- Rough blazing star Liatris aspera
In these guides
- Pet-safe plants for a sunny border
- Native perennials for pollinators
- Garden plants native to Canada
- Plants for hummingbirds
- Plants for butterflies
- Plants for bees
- Plants that feed garden birds
- Plants with spires: vertical accents
Zone guides: Zone 3 · Zone 4 · Zone 5 · Zone 6 · Zone 7 · Zone 8
Every fact on record
- Type
- Perennial
- Size
- 3 ft (90 cm) tall, 16 in (40 cm) wide
- Plant
- 12 in (30 cm) apart
- Height class
- Medium tall (2½ to 3 ft)
- Place in the bed
- Middle
- Flowers
- Mid July to mid August; upright spires; purple
- Leaves
- Fine texture, herbaceous; green
- Shape
- Upright, clumping
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 3 to 8
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil
- Average, well-drained
- Water
- Moderate
- Feeding
- None needed
- Family
- Asteraceae
- Comes from
- Central to Eastern United States and Eastern Canada
- Attracts
- Bees, specialist bees, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, songbirds
- Host plant for
- Liatris flower moth, Liatris borer
- Stands up to
- Heat, humidity, poor soil
Checked against NC State Extension and VASCAN (plants of Canada). Flowering times are for zone 5: later in colder zones, earlier in warmer ones. Toxicity and spread information is a general gardening guide, not veterinary or medical advice, and invasive status varies by region. If a person or pet eats a plant, contact poison control or a vet. Check your local invasive species list before planting anything with a spread warning.