Are you thinking of adding some larkspur flowers to your home or garden this planting season? These incredibly stunning blue flowers can be the difference between a pretty garden, and a stunning garden.Spring is always a time for new growth, colorful beginnings, and joy. There are several spring blossoms that hold up these spring values, but none quite like the larkspur. This gorgeous cottage garden staple has striking but graceful spire-like flowers, which sit on long stems.
When the larkspur blooms in early spring, your garden will be treated with a sea of blues, reds, violets, and even whites. It is on display best when its blooms peek out from the last snow of winter, but they bring the spring spirit in warmer climates too.
This flowering annual is an easy-going plant, especially once established. They’re also drought-resistant and won’t get nibbled on by deer or rabbits. It’s also July’s birth flower, making its blooms a unique and memorable gift for someone’s birthday.
However, there are some small caveats. All parts of this beautiful flower are poisonous. One brief touch of the leaves or their stunning flowers can cause extreme skin irritation. It’s also best to refrain from eating its flowers or any other parts of this plant. The larkspur poses a danger to cats and dogs, so plant it where your pets can’t get to them.
The larkspur is also a fast grower and will happily spread across your garden if you’re not careful. With a few post-blooming maintenance tricks, however, they shouldn’t take over your garden. Other than that, the larkspur is a wonderful addition to any landscape, especially cottage gardens. You can also snip them (carefully) and add them to indoor cut flower bouquets.
The Larkspur is native to the Mediterranean, North Africa, Europe, and Asia. Gardeners introduced it to England in the mid to late 1500s, then the larkspur found a home in the Americas. Once firmly rooted, the larkspur naturalized across the continent.
Before it became a cottage garden staple, however, it was a useful plant. Despite the plant’s poisonous properties, it was used for medicinal purposes. In ancient Greece, larkspur seeds were crushed to treat and control body lice. The entire plant was also often crushed up to form a porridge-like mixture to make larkspur poultices. This gooey substance was often the main source of treatment for open wounds and hemorrhoids.
Larkspur flowers were also entrenched in Native American culture. They used its blooms to create dyes and repel insects. It also held great symbolic value, often seen as having protective properties, which safeguarded warriors and repelled ghosts, thieves, and scorpions. This annual’s unique name was first mentioned in a gardening book in 1597. The author, John Gerard, likened its blooms to the claw of the lark bird. The resemblance is quite uncanny, so it’s no wonder this common name stuck. He also called it ‘knight’s-spur’, ‘lark’s heel’ and ‘lark’s claw.’
Gerard, like so many others today, also noticed the larkspur’s similarities to the delphinium, another spring flower. While these two belong to the Ranunculaceae family, they are considered different genera – sometimes.
The larkspur, as published in Gerard’s book, was in the Consolida genus. But the common name larkspur is often attributed to Delphiniums. The USDA saves the Consolida genus for any plants with the common name ‘knight’s-spur’. Naming and classifying plants is a confusing business, but all you need to know is that ‘knight’s-spur’ and ‘larkspur’ can refer to the same flowering annual, sometimes within the Consolida genus and sometimes under the Delphinium genus.
No matter how you classify this plant, the larkspur deserves a spot in your garden. Its ability to root itself across so many different areas with different climates makes it an extremely hardy plant. The Larkspur thrives in USDA zones 2-11, happily self-seeding every season.
Its tall blooms add a brilliant splash of spring, no matter where they’re planted. As mentioned, they make great additions to cottage gardens, but they also look right at home in wildflower gardens. Their height makes them wonderful border plants too, and they’re well-suited to growth in containers. Larkspurs add splashes of color to empty spaces in no time. These rapid growers mature in just a few months, which can make propagating slightly challenging. The best way to propagate this spring beauty is from seed.
While this may seem easy, propagating larkspurs from seed does require some preparation and plenty of patience.
Larkspur seeds require a cold treatment, or stratification before they can germinate. This replicates the natural process that seeds go through during winter. Naturally, larkspur seeds drop in fall and overwinter in the cold, snowy ground where they happily enjoy a cold period. Once the temperatures begin to climb, then the seeds germinate.
This process is very easy to replicate. Start by gathering the seeds from pods once they’ve begun to crack and dry. Fill a tray or small container with seed starting mix and water. Press the seeds into damp soil and cover. Next, pop your seeds into the refrigerator for a week or two. During this period, keep the soil damp by spritzing it with some water.
Once their cold period is up, the larkspur seeds are ready to sow. Depending on where you live, you may need to sow your seeds indoors before transplanting them in your garden.