How to Grow and Care for Gay feathers

Dense blazing star (Liatris spicata) is a flowering plant native to eastern North America. It comes from the same genetic family as sunflowers and daisies. The dense blazing star is a popular choice for a variety of pollinators, such as bees and butterflies. These plants have rather exacting demands on the soil, but benefit the local ecosystem by attracting scores of pollinating insects.

Tall fuzzy-looking flowers set this perennial wildflower, prairie blazing star apart from others. It’s pretty pink and purple blooms appear in late summer. This flower is often grown as an ornamental and is drought tolerant and attractive to butterflies. The seeds are easy to collect and store, but scarification is needed to make the seeds germinate.

Dotted Gayfeather (Liatris punctata) has a deep root system—the better to protect it in the sweltering, arid habitats it likes to grow in. Having rhizomes buried deep in the ground helps to make this plant exceedingly drought-tolerant. Its beautiful pinkish-lavender flowers make an appearance in late summer.

Rough blazing star is a pollinator paradise. Its late-season purple-tufted blooms attract monarch butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees. This perennial thrives in dry soils, making it a great choice for rock gardens. It has short, stiff hairs on its stem, giving rise to both its common and Latin names, as "aspera" is Latin for "rough."

Cusp blazing star boasts a dizzying array of alternative names, including Texas gayfeather, bottlebrush cusp blazing star, narrow-leaf cusp blazing star, and Texas cusp blazing star. Its seeds provide food for migrating birds. Additionally, it is exceedingly drought-resistant and stands up to summer's sweltering heat like few others.