This has to be one of the easiest and most rewarding Perennials available producing beautiful flowered, long spurred blooms in a multitude of colours and combinations. The attractive divided foliage forms a basal clump of fresh apple-green, leafing up early in spring to make a lovely foil for bulbs and early Primroses in the garden. They start pushing up flowering stems as early as April and go on producing a sequence of blooms until early June. The abundant, bee-pleasing flowers are 5cm (2in) in width, each with short, curled spurs are produced in in May, a month when flowers tend to be in short supply.

Soil

Average garden soil with excellent drainage.

Position

Full sun.

Frost tolerant

Good. Where winters are mild, seedlings sprout in fall and survive until spring.

Feeding

Fast growth is encouraged by mixing a balanced organic fertilizer into the soil before planting.

Companions

Echinacea, Oats and Monarda. Upright larkspur makes an ideal flower to grow behind shorter mound-forming bloomers.

Spacing

Single Plants: 11" (30cm) each way (minimum)

Rows: 11" (30cm) with 11" (30cm) row gap (minimum)

Sow and Plant

Sow larkspur seeds where you want the plants to grow in fall, or first thing in spring. Larkspur can be transplanted with care, but plants grow best from direct-sown seeds.

Our Garden Planner can produce a personalized calendar of when to sow, plant and harvest for your area.

Notes

Well-pleased plants can grow quite tall and may need staking. In many climates, larkspur will reseed with a little encouragement. Colors include pink, purple, lavender, white and many bicolors.

Harvesting

Larkspurs make wonderful cut flowers. As flowers fade, snip them off with scissors to keep the plants looking neat. Pull up plants when blooms become scarce.

Troubleshooting

The biggest challenge to growing larkspur is getting the seedlings up and growing. Larkspur is poisonous to pets and horses, but is seldom nibbled due to its bitter taste