May’s Practically Perfect Plant!
The Pasque Flower blooms in early spring. USDA Zones 4-8. Part sun – part shade for high elevations. Read below for more on light preferences. 12”H x 12”W.
Pasque Flower – A unique, early spring blooming perennial!
The Pasque Flower is such a unique and beautiful plant with so many great features, it just had to be picked as a Practically Perfect Plant! Pasque Flowers are one of the first perennials to bloom each spring. The lacy, fuzzy foliage provides a unique and attractive look to combine with the more commonly seen plants that emerge early in the season, such as tulips, daffodils and other bulbs. In Golden, Colorado, they begin blooming in mid-April. I would guess that they may bloom as early as late March down in Denver. The flowers keep coming for at least a month!
Pasque Flowers have fuzzy leaves, stems and even flower buds. You’ll most often find these gorgeous flowers in the shade of purple shown in the picture above, but they also come in a more pinkish purple and even white. After blooming, the flowers are replaced with attractive, fuzzy seed heads that sway in the breeze, adding to their aesthetic benefits for the garden.
Pasque Flowers Benefit the Bees!
Bees love Pasque Flowers, but then, who doesn’t love gorgeous blossoms first thing in the spring?! They’re a perfect selection to add to wildlife gardens to provide nectar early in the season when there is very little available for bees. The Pasque Flower is listed as one of my top ten early spring blooming plants that provide bees with critically needed early season nectar. Although the bees love Pasque Flowers, rabbits don’t! That is a seriously valuable trait in plants that begin growing very early in the season when rabbits devour almost any fresh foliage they can find!
Don’t Let the Pasque Flower’s Delicate Appearance Fool You!
Another fabulous trait of the Pasque Flower is that it can handle cold temperatures and snow without losing flowers. These delicate, yet mighty, plants laugh off those late season deep freezes (like the one we just had this April, 2020) better than any other spring bloomer I have found! The only thing that seems to be able to wipe out a Pasque Flower blossom is an unfortunate, rogue soccer ball plowing over it!
Full Sun? Not in Colorado!
Labels usually state that Pasque Flowers like full sun. However, at higher elevations, like in Colorado, our afternoon sun can be a bit too intense. They don’t like too much heat, and do best with afternoon shade in our climate. They can actually handle quite a bit of shade and still bloom well. The picture at the top of the page shows a Pasque Flower that only gets around two hours of late morning sun, and is in complete shade for the remainder of the day.
Nevertheless, they don’t do well in full shade. I had another Pasque Flower in a spot that has become more and more shady each year until in the last couple of years, it was getting no sun at all by May. That plant became punier and punier in the last few years with less flowers each season. This spring I moved it to a sunnier spot. As puny as it was this year, it still had a flower! I am sure it will have many more next year!
Pasque Flowers are wonderful additions to any garden and are really adaptable. Try a few in your garden and let me know what you think of them!
Learn about other Practically Perfect Plants to grow along the foothills of Colorado!