King's spear
Asphodeline lutea ·
Stiff spears packed with starry, scented yellow flowers rise from a fountain of grassy, blue-grey leaves in late spring.
- Size
- 3½ ft tall, 18 in wide
- Zones
- 6 to 9
- Light
- Full sun
- Flowers
- Late May to late June
- Pets
- Not checked
- Job in a bed
- Accent
A bed built around king's spear
The planner designed this bed around king's spear 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 715 that suit those conditions and its dry soil, and says below why king's spear stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 King's spear × 1, yellow
- 2 Leadwort × 11, blue
- 3 Sea thrift × 11, pink
- 4 Common milkweed × 5, pink
- 5 Dwarf English boxwood × 1, dark green leaves
- 6 Foxglove beardtongue × 5, white
- 7 Tulip × 7, purple
- 8 Red spider lily × 12, red
Why this plant
- The only yellow.
Why here
- In the middle. At 3½ ft it is seen over leadwort (10 in) in front of it.
- One plant. An accent is used singly, like a punctuation mark.
Why now
- In flower for five weeks. From late May to late June.
- Part of the bed's peak. With sea thrift and foxglove beardtongue in late May: 3 kinds at once. No week has more.
- One of three evergreens. They are what the bed has to show from November to March.
Planned as a cottage garden: 34 of the 34 plants (100%), bulbs aside, stand alone or in groups of no more than five, small enough for the kinds to mingle. Leadwort repeats along the bed to tie it together. Among the neighbours here are two pairs of recognised partners, such as leadwort and red spider lily.
The planner's own design check: 11 Excellent, 5 Good, 1 Satisfactory. It flags one thing to watch: Common milkweed spreads aggressively. Each plant's details say more.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where king's spear goes in a border
At 3½ ft it belongs in the middle of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is moderately tall (3 to 4 ft).
Its job: accent. An upright plant used singly, like a punctuation mark, and repeated at intervals to give the bed rhythm.
A Mediterranean plant with a strong vertical line and good foliage all year. The seed heads, strung with round green beads, are worth leaving. It needs sun and sharp drainage.
- Vertical accents in gravel gardens
- Mediterranean planting
- Seed heads for late summer
What to plant with king's spear
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- English lavender 'Hidcote': a low mound at the foot of its spires; low enough (18 in) to stand in front of it; happy in the same dry soil.
- Blue oat grass: in flower together for three weeks, from early June; a low mound at the foot of its spires; happy in the same dry soil.
- Rock rose: in flower together for five weeks, from late May; a low mound at the foot of its spires; low enough (10 in) to stand in front of it.
Questions about king's spear
Does king's spear need sun or shade?
King's spear grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day).
It wants dry, sharply drained soil, on the lean side, with no feeding, and little watering once settled.
What zones does king's spear grow in?
USDA zones 6 to 9. It is hardy to zone 6, which means it survives winter nights down to about 0 °F (−18 °C).
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
When does king's spear flower in my zone?
In zone 5 it flowers late May to late June. As a spring flower it moves about a week for every zone: earlier where it is warmer, later where it is colder.
| Zone 6 | Mid May to late June |
|---|---|
| Zone 7 | Early May to mid June |
| Zone 8 | Early May to mid June |
| Zone 9 | Late April to early June |
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 king's spear be planted?
16 in (40 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 18 in (45 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 3½ ft (100 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many king's spear plants do I need?
At 16 in apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 7 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 8 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 21 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 one in one group.
Is there a native plant like king's spear?
King's spear is not native to North America. These North American natives come closest to doing its job:
- Firecracker penstemon: the same job in a bed and the same flowering time; 10 in shorter, red, not yellow.
- Lupine: the same job in a bed, the same size, the same flowering time and the same colour; belongs at the back, not in the middle, medium leaves, not fine.
Matched the way the planner's Swap button matches plants: the same job in a bed, then size, then flowering time.
What flowers after king's spear?
King's spear is over by late June. These start as it finishes and carry the same spot on, so it never goes flat:
- English lavender 'Hidcote': from late June to late July, 18 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems (a recorded partner).
- Daylily: from late June to early August, 2½ ft tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Bee balm: from early July to early August, 3 ft tall.
What does king's spear look like in winter?
King's spear keeps its blue-green leaves all winter, so it is one of the plants that hold a bed together from November to March, when the perennials have gone.
In these guides
Every fact on record
- Type
- Perennial
- Size
- 3½ ft (100 cm) tall, 18 in (45 cm) wide
- Plant
- 16 in (40 cm) apart
- Height class
- Moderately tall (3 to 4 ft)
- Place in the bed
- Middle
- Flowers
- Late May to late June; upright spires; yellow
- Leaves
- Fine texture, evergreen; blue-green
- Shape
- Upright, clumping
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 6 to 9
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil
- Lean, dry and sharply drained
- Water
- Low
- Feeding
- None needed
Not yet checked against an outside reference: its figures rest on general horticultural knowledge. 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.