Spacing & sowing

Plant spacing

19.7 in

In-row spacing

19.7 in

Between rows

2 ft 1 in

Square-foot density

Not suited to SFG

Growing

Type

Flower · Perennial

Botanical family

Mixed / other

Sunlight

Full sun is essential; shade gives floppy, weak growth.

Watering

Very drought-tolerant, and overwatering is the main way to lose it.

Feeding

Rarely needed — too much feeding is what makes it flop.

Frost tolerant

Yes

Flowering

August

Pruning

Leave the seed heads through winter, then cut to the ground in early spring.

Through the year

• Mar–Aug Spring Growth
• Aug–Oct Flowering
• Oct–Nov Growing
• Nov–Dec Leaf Fall
• Jan–Mar Leaf Fall

Companions

Grasses, Echinacea, Asters, Rudbeckia

Pests & problems

• Vine weevil Adults notch leaf edges at night; their plump C-shaped grubs devour roots, especially in containers. Hand-pick adults after dark and water in biological nematodes in late summer.
• Slugs & snails Slugs on the young growth
• Root & crown rot Crown rot where the soil stays wet

Garden allies

Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. ★ companion plant

• Beneficial nematodes Steinernema & Heterorhabditis spp.
  Hunts Vine weevilSlugs & snails

  Microscopic worms watered onto damp soil that hunt down soil-dwelling grubs and release a bacterium that kills them within days. Timing is the whole thing: warm, damp soil and a small target grub, which means late summer for most of what they are used against.

• Frogs & toads Anura
  Hunts Slugs & snailsVine weevil

  A resident toad works the beds every night for slugs, cutworms, and weevils. Recruit them with water — even a sunken basin pond — plus damp shade and an upturned-pot toad house; skip the slug pellets that poison their prey.

• Ground beetle Carabidae
  Hunts Slugs & snailsVine weevil

  Fast, glossy night hunters that patrol the soil surface for slugs, cutworms, and root-fly larvae. Give them daytime cover — thick perennial edges, stepping stones, a log — and skip the tillage that wrecks their burrows.

  Plant nearby LavenderMintThyme
• Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus
  Hunts Slugs & snailsVine weevil

  A European animal, and worth saying so plainly: there are no hedgehogs in North America, and the ally that does the same night shift here is the toad, the opossum or the ground beetle. Where they do occur, cut a gap in the fence and skip the pellets.

• Centipedes Chilopoda
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  Flat, fast, one pair of legs to a segment — and a predator, unlike the slow round millipede it is constantly confused with. It hunts slugs, cutworms, springtails and woodlice by night under mulch and stones. Learn the difference and leave this one alone.

• Garden birds Passeriformes
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  Both things are true: birds strip your currants and a brood of blue tits takes several thousand caterpillars out of one fruit tree in a fortnight. Net what you must and welcome them everywhere else — a nest box near the apples is worth more than a spray.

  Plant nearby EchinaceaElderberryEnglish hollyGoldenrodRudbeckiaSunflowerTeaselViburnum
• Rove beetle Staphylinidae
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  Slim, quick beetles with short wing cases that hunt in soil and litter, taking root-fly eggs and larvae, fungus-gnat larvae, and mites. Mulch and undisturbed ground keep them resident year-round.

  Plant nearby MintThyme
• Salamanders & newts Caudata
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  Damp-loving hunters of slugs, worms, woodlice and beetle larvae that spend the day under a log or a stone and work the beds at night. Companions to the toads: they want the same damp shade, the same log pile, and the same absence of slug pellets.

• Snakes & lizards Colubridae & Phrynosomatidae
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  A garter snake works the beds for slugs and voles and a fence lizard clears grasshoppers off a sunny wall. Almost every snake a gardener meets is harmless and useful; give them a log pile, a warm flat stone and a bit of cover and they stay.