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Eryngium leavenworthii |
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Wildflower of south-central United States. The only annual eryngo I've grown, this promised to be a stunner with its purple flowers; a departure from the greenish-white to steely-blue spectrum of the perennial species we grow. My first experience was in Pennsylvania, where my traded seed germinated well enough. Through the middle of summer, the plants grew large and bushy, and somewhat floppy, with lots of green flowers-in-waiting. Then in mid-August, some of the bracts turned purple. By late August, many flowers were purple from head to toe. Finally, toward mid-September, the real deep purple arrived. It happened to be in bloom when I had a garden tour come through, and many visitor enquired about it. In following years, some volunteers emerged in the garden, but I could not coax any seed I collected to germinate – and after a few years, it expired from our garden. Wanting to repeat the experience, I was on the lookout for seed for years afterwards, but didn't get my hands on any until many years later, when we'd moved to Texas, and was happy to get a fair number of seedlings going. This being closer to its native habitat, I expected them to do even better in our new garden – but this turned out not to be the case. They started out healthy enough, with lanky upward growth – but then they turned scraggly, started flopping, and were frankly rather ugly. The ones I had planted out in a garden border expired altogether, but the ones in my seedling nursery area survived. And sure enough, right around the same time of year as they had in Pennsylvania, they started their bloom sequence, reaching the awesome purple stage by late September. I'm eager to see if seed from these plants will prove viable, but not sure how I can usefully incorporate them into our garden if they do...
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| | Glorious late-September blooms on our Texas-grown specimens, after they flopped over and mingled with a combination of other seedlings and annual weeds |
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| | Starting out looking like prickly bolting lettuce in June |
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In our garden, this plant grows in the following areas: back fence border, left fence nursery area Read about all the eryngium species in our garden One or more images of this plant are included in my stock photo catalog About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Eryngium leavenworthii
Visitors to this page have left the following comments| Edward in the Netherlands | Mar 10, 2009 | hallo ! So curious how to grow Eryngium leavenworthii. tried to find detailed information about soil preferences on your site. for example acidity tolerance. Ph preference.
I am located on poor sandy garden soil. not much calcium, but rather acid.
what are the conditions in south central US ?
much obliged, with best regards, edward
I don't know the answer. I think soils in the US southwest tend toward the alkaline, but my own garden soil is probably slightly acidic, and this Eryngium does fine. On the other hand, the Dutch climate may not provide as much heat as this plant likes. |
| Mary | Mar 09, 2010 | My best info on germination is to sow in the normal way. Keep in a warm place for 2-4wks, then into the fridge for 4 weeks+, then back to ROOM TEMPERATURE, NOT HEAT. I am just about to try. They will be fine in reasonably alkaline soil |
| judy | Sep 11, 2011 | Can this plant be used as a natural dye?
I don't know - it's not mentioned as a use in what I've read about this plant. |
| Barry Elder | Sep 01, 2014 | This stuff is growing on the property I bought and just now starting to turn purple.I was wondering if a goat would eat it. Looks like it would be quite a painful thing to step on so I was considering getting a goat if it would eat the things up but apparently some people want them. I am 12 miles or so northwest of Weatherford, Texas. |
| Joan | Apr 10, 2022 | Hi, I'm hoping to grow this Eryngium and have had little luck germinating seeds. What is the baggy method you mention above?
See my page on the baggy method for all the details. |
- Seed from '05 trade. Baggy 70F (67%G, 11-16d)
- Seed from '07 garden. Baggy 70F (no G, 4w)
- Seed from '08 garden. Baggy 70F (25d) - 75F (27d; no G)
- Seed from NARGS '24/'25 exchange. Baggy 70F (58%G, 10-21d). Rolled ungerminated seeds with sandpaper to reveal small round inner seeds, but these didn't germinate
The plants in our '07 garden self-seeded, so there must be viable seeds set - but they are either few and far between, or their germination requirements aren't met by my attempts to start garden-collected seed.
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Last modified:
September 28, 2025
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