I have liatris elegans for any type of milkweed.please email me your addy if you want to trade. Maria

Well I never sent the pics to any experts but the heads did keep bending and curling and changing shape everyday until just before they started to bloom. Most of the heads went completely straight, and a couple remained a slight bit crooked. The flower stalks spread out more than I liked, so I wasn't really happy with the way it looked. I tried to stake them, but it didn't do too much for the appearance. I ended up cutting back most of the stalks when they were 1/2 way done blooming in hopes of rebloom of smaller spikes. I think my clay soil may be too rich for them. This was two weeks ago:

Hi Nell, sounds like you have a nice place to grow gardens and a landscape full of natives. How nice to be near a little river! Do you have a dog? If so, they may help keep the critters away. I wintersowed last year for the first time, with about 50 native species germinating (plus some cultivars), including Liatris pychnostachya and L. ligulistylis. They sprouted April 19-20th but then I planted them into small nursery pots to hold over because I didn't have enough garden beds ready yet. FInally got them planted in the fall. Mine didn't get very big the first year either, but probably would have done better if they were planted in the ground early. Yours are sprouting nice and early! Bill Cullina's Wildflower book says they may flower a little the first year (mine didn't). This year I am sowing Liatris aspera too. What other plants are you growing for the butterflies?

To be honest, I'm not too sure what you're referring to when it comes to the leaves. In the process of dinking around a bit online... the impression I'm getting is that how obvious the bracts in the lower part of the inflorescence are is dependent mostly on how far down the inflorescence flowering has progressed. For instance, in the pictures of Liatris pycnostachya on this page and the second picture down of Liatris spicata on this page, the bracts are fairly obvious in both inflorescences when the lower flowers haven't opened yet. On the other hand, in the top picture of Liatris pycnostachya on this page and in the top picture of Liatris spicata on this page, the lower bracts are inconspicuous on both species once those lower flowers have opened. On the other hand, the differences in phyllaries shown on those pages are fairly obvious... Patrick Alexander