A flower for your basket
American basketflower, a reseeding annual, has a long blooming period
The new paths at the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center traverse about 15 acres of restored prairie savanna and wetland habitat full of plants that might be useful to Houston gardeners. On my early visits, though, one plant in particular caught my attention.
How had I never noticed American basketflower before?
A patch of them waved from a sunny bed near the parking lot, towering above hardy hibiscus and sunflowers, on slender stalks topped with blossoms whose masses of stringy petals looked like exploding lavender fireworks.
Those plants were taller than me, maybe even 7 feet tall. On trails where conditions were shadier and perhaps wetter, the delightful flowers were going head-to-head with much shorter rudbeckias.
They were still pretty in late June. A reseeding annual, basketflower reportedly has a long blooming period, from May to August. Maybe not that long in Houston, depending on temperatures and rainfall. Plantswoman Heidi Sheesley wonders if the Gulf Coast’s long, cool spring may have extended that show. “A lot of things have been a month off their mark this year,” she said.
Sheesley has a nice stand of basketflower in the landscape at her wholesale nursery, Treesearch Farms in Spring Branch. It returns every year from seed she first planted eight years ago. She pulled up this year’s spent stalks two weeks ago, after they’d had a chance to shed their seed.
Most importantly, basketflower is an important plant for wildlife. Various species of hummingbirds, songbirds, game birds, butterflies, moths, bees, beetles and other insects visit for the nectar, which is high in sugar and amino acids, its high-protein pollen and its nutritious seed. Basketflower also can be a cover crop, turned over at the end of its season to enrich existing soil.
The name apparently is inspired by the basketlike shape of the buds before they pop open into that 2- to 3-inch diameter profusion of ombre petals, which radiate from cream-colored centers to delicate pinky-purples. American basketflower, technically Centaurea americana, also is known as shaving brush, straw-hat and cardo de valle.
Whatever you want to call it, the plant is the only Centaura native to North America, from the same genus as European bachelor buttons and cornflower.
Basketflower has been appreciated for a long time. A fact sheet published
by Native American Seed quotes Eliza Griffon Johnston’s 19th-century book “Texas Wild Flowers.” Johnston describes wagon-wheel paths across northwestern Texas lined with basketflowers — “ornaments for the roadside” whose seed was spread by passing wheels and the hooves of horses.
Native Americans used various parts of the plant to combat venomous snakebites, indigestion, jaundice and eye disorders; extensive stands have been found on historical bison kill sites where people camped for thousands of years.
Basketflower is prolific across the Plains states and the Southwest in prairies, meadows, drainage channels, overgrazed pastures (livestock doesn’t eat it) and along disturbed roadsides. This may be one reason I hadn’t seen it before: Basketflower prefers well-drained, sandy clay or loam.
That does not equate to the average Houston yard, where black gumbo soil is the norm. Although Sheesley said basketflower isn’t picky about soil. Her stand of basketflower grows in a raised bed of amended clay gumbo established 20 years ago, in an area that stays wet awhile after rains. She described the flower heads as huge and said they can range from white to pink to lavender.
In a small urban garden, basketflower might be too robust, although unwanted sprouts are easily pulled. The plant has no known diseases, pesky insects don’t bother it and it seems to be tolerant of droughts, floods and freezes.
“It’s spectacular,” Sheesley said, noting that basketflower also provides pretty cut flowers and has a nice fragrance.
Emily Manderson, the arboretum’s conservation director, agrees that basketflower is an underused prairie plant in local gardens that deserves to be celebrated.
Now is the time to plan for a display next summer. Calls to Houston area nurseries didn’t turn up local sources, but seed is available through Native American Seed (seedsource.com). Spread it no deeper than a half-inch in sunny or at least partlysunny, well-draining soil, from August to November. Seedlings emerge during the winter and early spring.
“Plant it where you want something tall,” Sheesley advised. “Once you get it going, just let it come back every year.”