When you look at this photo of blazing stars in my garden, you won’t think it looks very “spiky” – but there is a story behind it!

When I started my garden a decade ago, I planted some seedlings that I bought at a plant exchange at my church. I had no idea what this plant was going to be, because either it wasn’t labeled or the person manning the plant exchange table didn’t know what it was. All I knew was that it was a native perennial, which is what I wanted.

It started to grow but didn’t produce flowers right away. The first year it was just a green stem with spiky leaves sticking out from it (no, that is not what the plants surrounding the flowers in this photo are – that’s a different plant entirely!). I had no idea what it was or what it was going to look like so for that first year, I simply called it (affectionately, of course!) “Mr. Spiky!” The second year, the leaves grew longer and a stalk shot up that was covered with these purple flowers. That is when my neighbor told me its name was “blazing star.” Like many non-bulb perennials, it spreads! In the past couple of years, blazing stars have been appearing in various spots in my garden, such as in the middle of another plant as in the photo above.

Posted for Becky’s Spiky Squares Month (March 2019).