Liatris is a summer blooming bulb that is tough as nails. It is drought tolerant, deer resistant, poor soil tolerant and heat tolerant.
At Dawn Gardens we plant Liatris in the winter and they bloom in the months of June, July and August. We usually leave them in the ground all year unless we want to divide them. In that case, we dig them up in the winter and break the bulbs apart and replant them. They are easy to propagate and inexpensive to purchase. they cost about 17 cents each wholesale.
Here is a photo of the bulb:
The flowers come in white or purple and add a great vertical accent to the perennial garden. There are white and purple Liatris in the back of the perennial garden as shown below.
There is a closer view of some white Liatris on the left side of the following photo:
The fall foliage is usually a beautiful clear yellow to red in October and then they go dormant until April:
The flowers fade from purple to brown in September and go well with some of the ornamental grasses:
This video shows that the bees love Liatris: