Blooming down

Liatris aspera

Flowers usually bloom from the bottom up. Think about gladiolus, hollyhocks and lilies. But Liatris, or Blazing Star, starts blooming from the tip and the color slowly works down the stalk. Many garden flowers are native to far-away places, but Blazing Star was a wildflower discovered by Lewis and Clark on their journey to the Pacific. Along with mapping the land and keeping themselves alive, the expedition still found time to catalog 178 plants and 122 animal species.

As far as I know, Liatris are only bright purple or white. Some fussy gardeners don't care for that shade of magenta because it clashes with other colors. But they're pretty in cut bouquets, and a few stalks grew in our garden for years. Like so many things, I took them for granted until they petered out. This spring I finally remembered to pick up a packet of bulbs (corms, actually) at Home Depot and they turned into a nice little clump. Bees like them, too.