The first time I remember noticing this beautiful mid-summer blooming purple bush was about twenty years ago, up near Masonville, west of Fort Collins.

I couldn’t get over how cool and refreshing it looked in the midst of such a hot summer day!

So when I moved up to 7,000 feet and started my own garden five years ago, I knew I would have to have a few of these bushes sprinkled throughout.

This plant has turned out to be one of my most dependable bloomers every summer. It needs no extra water once established, the deer and critters don’t touch it and it comes back every year bigger and better than before. It attracts lots of bees and butterflies, and this year it’s begun creating new plants around itself! I love the way it starts blooming in mid-July when most of my other flowers are finished.

I found out online that these can be propagated from seed by “collecting their fruit—a light brown, winged nutlet. Harvest these seeds and place them in damp sphagnum moss in a plastic bag. Put that in the refrigerator for three months, then sow them in pots. Transplant them outside in spring.”

Mine seem to be propagating themselves with no assistance from me!