Liatris spicata (blazing star or gayfeather) is one of my favorite perennials because it’s a tough, native plant that needs little attention. The fuzzy, lavender flowers appear on spikes in mid-summer and are magnets for bumblebees and butterflies. Liatris grows 2-4 feet tall. You can also grow specific cultivars like ‘Kobold’ which grows only 18 to 30 inches tall. ‘Kobold’s’ flowers are royal purple rather than lavender.
Salvia ‘Fairy Queen’ is an annual that grows 18 inches tall with small spikes of lavender and white flowers. It’s easy to sprout from seed indoors, and the plants thrive in sun or part-shade:
‘Butterfly Heaven’ (buddleia) butterfly bush is a shrub that grows 6 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide. It’s hardy in Zones 5-10. In the colder zones the plant will die back down to the ground during a harsh winter, but it will send up new shoots and grow quickly the following spring. The flowers are absolutely intoxicating to butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. The lavender blooms of ‘Butterfly Heaven’ appear all summer into fall. I like the color because it’s unusual. It’s almost a grayish lavender:
Daylily ‘Orchid Elegance’ has pinkish-lavender flowers with a darker lavender eye and edge. This dormant daylily grows 26 inches tall with fragrant, 5.5-inch flowers. This is a good cultivar to plant with dark-purple daylilies:
