Conoclinum coelestinum, Blue Boneset or Mistflower (Near Native)

Native from the southern shores of Lake Erie, with a range that extends to the mid west and the south and east coasts, VASCAN lists this species as ‘Ephemeral’ in Ontario, which means introduces but not persistently found outside of cultivation (patches get started but then fade away).

I introduced these to my Ottawa and Perth gardens a couple of years ago out of interest in their late blooming season and reports that they are a good nectar source for pollinators.

They matured to blooming size in their first year from seed, doing quite well in some pots in my front and back yard. Several more were tucked into a nursery bed to over winter after spending too long in plug trays. Both the ones in the large pots and the late-planted seedlings came through the winter of 2022-23 just fine and put on an impressive show of blooms in September of 2023 and seem to have been enjoyed as a late-season meal by the local Bumblebees so I decided to gather seeds and include them in the near-native offerings of seedlings for this year.

Oddly enough, both the plants in the nursery bed and the plants in the pots haven’t shown any signs of growth so far this spring, after a much milder winter than the one before. I’m not yet sure if they are just late to appear or if they have died off entirely. I’ll go ahead and offer the seedlings that are already coming along since they are lovely enough as late but long blooming annuals and did perfectly well in containers. Time will tell if they can be a reliably persistent perennial in the garden.