Lakeshore Garden Centres Plant Finder

Description:

A rare and endangered native coastal variety, producing satiny, cup shaped lavender-pink flowers with red eyes; grows only in poor, serpentine soils in full sun; blooms in late spring to early summer; plants do not do well in hot, humid summer climates

Ornamental Features

Presidio Clarkia features showy racemes of lavender cup-shaped flowers with pink overtones and red centers rising above the foliage from late spring to early summer. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its pointy leaves remain green in colour throughout the season.

Landscape Attributes

Presidio Clarkia is an herbaceous annual with an upright spreading habit of growth. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and should only be pruned after flowering to avoid removing any of the current season's flowers. It is a good choice for attracting bees and butterflies to your yard, but is not particularly attractive to deer who tend to leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. Gardeners should be aware of the following characteristic(s) that may warrant special consideration;

• Self-Seeding

Presidio Clarkia is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use
• Naturalizing And Woodland Gardens
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Presidio Clarkia will grow to be about 14 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 8 inches. This fast-growing annual will normally live for one full growing season, needing replacement the following year. However, this species tends to self-seed and may thereby endure for years in the garden if allowed. As this plant tends to go dormant in summer, it is best interplanted with late-season bloomers to hide the dying foliage.

This plant should only be grown in full sunlight. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. As a rule, this plant should never be fertilized. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in poor soils. It is quite intolerant of urban pollution, therefore inner city or urban streetside plantings are best avoided. This species is native to parts of North America..

Presidio Clarkia is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. It is often used as a 'filler' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, providing a mass of flowers against which the larger thriller plants stand out. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.