Violet Queen Spiderflower

Other Names: Spider Flower, Spider Plant

Ornamental Features:

Violet Queen Spiderflower features showy spikes of lilac purple spider-like flowers rising above the foliage from early summer to mid fall. It's pointy leaves remain dark green in colour throughout the season. The fruit is not ornamentally significant.

Landscape Attributes:

Violet Queen Spiderflower is an open herbaceous annual bedding plant with a rigidly upright and towering form. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This annual bedding plant will require occasional maintenance and upkeep, and should be cut back in late fall in preparation for winter. It is a good choice for attracting butterflies to your yard, but is not particularly attractive to deer who tend to leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Violet Queen Spiderflower is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• General Garden Use
• Mass Planting
• Border Edging
• Container Planting
• Hanging Baskets
• Groundcover

Plant Characteristics:

Violet Queen Spiderflower will grow to be about 3 feet tall at maturity extending to 4 feet tall with the flowers, with a spread of 24 inches. It tends to be leggy, with a typical clearance of 1 feet from the ground, and should be underplanted with lower-growing perennials. The flower stalks can be weak and so it may require staking in exposed sites or excessively rich soils. This fast-growing annual will normally live for one full growing season, needing replacement the following year.

This annual bedding plant should only be grown in full sunlight. It is very adaptable to both dry and moist growing conditions, but will not tolerate any standing water. It is considered to be drought-tolerant, and thus makes an ideal choice for a low-water garden or xeriscape application. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This plant can be propagated by cuttings.

This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.