Fantastic Design Plant: Culver's Root

I started using Culver’s root for kicks. Thanks to its candelabra blooms loved by butterflies, good yellow fall colour and carefree growing, I have come to love this Midwest native and think about it a basic design plant. Leave this up through winter to give your garden a exceptional appearance; it also shelters winter birds and gives you seeds to glow readily at any time.

Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Botanical name: Veronicastrum virginicum
Common name: Culver’s origin
Resource: Eastern Plains (Missouri River), northern Midwest and eastern Midwest to New England
USDA zones: 3 to 2 (find your zone)
Water requirement: Wet into medium-wet dirt
Light requirement: Full sun
Mature size: Slowly spreading clump to several feet broad; 4 to 5 feet tall
Gains: Insect magnet; exceptional spiked shape
Seasonal curiosity: Long blooming in midsummer; seems architectural in winter
When to plant: Spring to fall

Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Distinguishing traits. It is a spooky plant in fall and winter. Culver’s root may be pecked at by birds on snowy afternoons and holds up amazing to powerful plains winds.

As the story goes, an early American physician found laxative properties in the plant. Do with that information what you will, but you understand why it is named Culver’s root and not Poopy Pants root.

Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

How to use it. Culver’s origin is excellent for a rain garden or some other low area in your landscape. Put it at the middle for a effect or in the back of a mattress.

Planting notes.
Butterflies, moths and bees swarm to blooms which look amazing during full moons. This really is an interesting easy and well-behaved Midwest which everyone should try. Dig it at any time, from early spring into late fall — even in winter in the event that you put several inches of compost on top. Scatter the seeds over bare soil in spring and you ought to get seedlings, too.

More about attracting butterflies and birds

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