Showy Fleabane in the Landscape

Diane Jones, Draggin' Wing Farm, Water-thrifty Plants for Idaho

Scientfic Name:  Erigeron speciosus
Common Name:  Showy Fleabane, Mountain Daisy, Aspen Fleabane, Oregon Fleabane

Description:  Erect native daisy with narrow leaves and cheerful purple flowers in early to mid-summer. Usually occurs in woodland openings or edges.

Native Habitat:  Showy Fleabane is a characteristic species of aspen parkland, coniferous forests, shrub steppe and mountain meadows from British Columbia through Western Montana and south to Arizona and New Mexico. Will adapt readily to lower elevations. Cold hardy.

Cultural Requirement

Soil:  Tolerant of most ordinary garden soil

Moisture Tolerance:  Low to moderate water needs

Sun/Shade/Preference:  Full sun; part shade

Transplanting:  Easy

Propagation:  Seed, cuttings or division

Maintenance (pruning, fertilization, deadheading, division, irrigation, etc):  For most attractive appearance, remove spent flower heads. Deadheading will encourage re-bloom in the fall.

Insect, disease, or other problems:  None of concern

Landscape Value

Use in the Landscape:  Provides attractive burst of color in early summer; may re-bloom in fall.

Foliage:  Dark green glossy leaves in basal clump and running up flowering stalks.

Timing:  May-June

Color:  Lavender, occasionally shading from blue to white

Form:  Semi-dense basal foliage surmounted by longish flowering stalks

Ultimate Size:  18" wide x 18-24" tall

Rate of Growth:  Moderate to rapid

Suggested Plant Partners:  Pearly Everlasting, Cutleaf Daisy, Pussytoes

Availability:  Available at specialty nurseries

Cultivars:  Pink Jewel, Grandiflorus

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