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Larkspur
  • Larkspur
  • Larkspur
  • Larkspur
  • Larkspur
  • Larkspur
  • Larkspur
  • Larkspur
  • Larkspur
  • Larkspur
  • Larkspur
Larkspur

Consolida ambigua
$4.50
Description

Beautiful tall spiked flowers of mixed colors include mostly shades of purple, mixed in with whites and pinks too. We've been growing and saving this since 2012. Originally, we got our seed from Master Gardener Lois McNamara who got them from Mrs. Barbara Feaster in Shiloh, Florida, the same Feasters who have been stewarding their family's mustard for generations.

This is a long-blooming and lovely flower loved by pollinators. Sow seeds directly in the fall into cool soil after a couple of weeks in the refrigerator to mimic a short winter. They will begin flowering in the early spring, providing tall, wispy, long-lasting blooms. Because they are tall and not consuming of space (until you let them freely seed like we do!), they are great companions for veggies and other things in the garden. Also great as a tall border plant. It will re-sow easily and come up all over the place if you let it go to seed. Chill seed in refrigerator for 7 days for improved germination.
Product details
  • About 100 seeds
  • 100 days to flower
  • Seeds grown in Working Food gardens at GROW HUB in Gainesville, Florida
How to grow

Can be direct sown in the fall into garden soil, or transplanted. Either way, pre-chilling the seed in a refrigerator for at least 2 weeks will help encourage better germination rates.

They don't take up too much space horizontally, being tall and slender plants, so closer spacing of 8-12" is OK. As with all flowers, they will do much better in good quality garden soil that is irrigated.

How to save seeds

These are incredibly easy to save seed from, and they're also very easy to let self-sow in the garden.

After the flowers are pollinated, look for small green seed pods to develop. They will gradually mature, dry, and turn brown, eventually looking like little burritos packed with tiny black seeds.

You can gather seeds a little at a time as the pods mature, or wait as long as possible and harvest the whole stem when about ½–⅔ of the seed pods are brown and mature. Harvest before the seeds start falling to the ground or heavy rain gets to them. Clip the stems and bring them indoors to finish drying, upside down in a paper bag to catch the seeds.

The only real challenge is wet weather while the seeds are drying. If rain is on the way, bring the stems inside and let them finish drying there.

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