By Grace Broyles
When the browns and grays of late summer get dreary, we are often blessed with several rainstorms that liven up our landscapes and the terrain of West Central Texas with color. Among the colors are the vibrant purples of the Texas Gayfeather, also called Texas Blazing Star. This fall it seemed a long time coming, but finally they burst into bloom, sparkling up the landscape.
Texas Gayfeather is in the Aster family of plants under the genus liatris. It is a long-flowering sun-loving perennial wildflower with grass-like leaves growing from corms or bulbs. Its long bottlebrush stems or spires produce small tuft-like flowers that open from the top of the stem going down. Gayfeather plants are rather stiff and very upright, growing 1-3 feet tall in wide-spreading clumps of a few to many stems. The plant does best in chalky /limestone parts of our area and can be seen along roadcuts and the limestone uplands of plateaus. But they can grow in almost any well-draining soil. Too rich a soil will cause the stems to get heavy and lay down. Too wet a soil will cause the roots to rot.
Gayfeathers are a great wildflower to enjoy in a fall garden, a rock garden, or on a hillside, and attract pollinators such as butterflies and hummingbirds on their migratory route to the south. Some birds also make use of the plant, in late fall or winter, for its seeds. The flower stalk may be pruned after a burst of flowering, and may produce even more flowers. Once its flowering season is over, it is still attractive in the early winter at which time the leaf stalks turn a purply color.
The seeds that the Gayfeather produces are long and narrow, about a half-inch long. These may be planted to produce new plants by strewing them over the soil in the fall where you might like Gayfeather to grow, and then covering the seeds with a shallow layer of leaf debris or well-draining soil. The seeds will germinate when the temperatures and soil conditions are just right, after about 6 weeks of cold stratification. Seeds may be saved until spring and planted after about 6 weeks in the refrigerator. The new seedlings will then need a couple of years of growth before they begin to flower.
The easiest way to propagate Gayfeather, however, is to use a sharpshooter shovel to cut through the corms of a plant after it has stopped flowering, and then dig up the corm and planting it with its attached stems in a spot where it will be in full sun. This can be done in late fall or in early spring. The newly planted corms should be watered in and then watered infrequently, or left for the rains to water. The corm will begin producing roots throughout the colder months. In the spring, new stem growth will appear.
Several corms spaced about 2 feet apart will create an eye-catching spot of color in a landscape. Spaced too closely, the roots will become rootbound and perhaps rot. A mature Gayfeather plant can develop roots up to 16 feet long, when conditions are optimum.
Gayfeather flower stalks may be cut and placed in flower arrangements. The pretty feathery flowers last for a long time, and once dry, the flowers remain a light pink for months. The lower leaves of the stem should be snipped off as they will rot when placed in a vase of water.
Gayfeather plants may be pruned to the ground in late fall/early winter as the plant rests for a season. Once temperatures warm up, new stem growth will appear. Once established in a garden area, Gayfeathers will survive up to 6 years without much interference. After about 6 years, the plants corms should be thinned out.
Varieties of liatris have been developed, including a white-flowering kind, a dwarf variety, and a dense variety. All these Gayfeather plants have attractive features for gardeners to enjoy in their landscape schemes for the fall, adding color and interest after a hot dry summer.
If you have any questions about gardening and plants, call the Taylor County Extension Office at 325-672-6048 or email us at mgardeners@yahoo.com. We hope you visit bcmgtx.org for information on all Big Country Master Gardener events, like us on BCMGA Facebook, and check out training presentations on BCMGA YouTube. We are here to help you.
