You may need to use an inoculant to help plants become established in some soils. Mature plants tolerate summer drought, and clumps seldom need dividing. Purple prairie clover is slow to develop, but once it settles in, it is a tough, low-maintenance garden plant. The larvae of dogface sulphur and rieker blue butterflies feed on the plants.
Wasps, flies, small butterflies, hummingbirds, beetles, and plant bugs also visit the flowers. The nectar of the flowers attracts many kinds of bees, including honeybees and bumblebees, which collect pollen. Allow seed heads to remain for winter interest and bird food. Plant it with other summer-blooming flowers such as monarda, leadplant, butterfly milkweed, prairie onions and smaller grasses like little bluestem and prairie dropseed. The fine-textured foliage remains attractive throughout the growing season, and the seed heads offer winter interest. Plant it in groups of three to five in perennial borders or butterfly gardens, or use a single plant as an accent in rock gardens.
#Clover with purple flowers full
Purple prairie clover doesn’t look like much in spring (including in the nursery container), but it will reward you in midsummer a mature plant is quite attractive in full bloom. Older plants may tiller (split) at the base and send up multiple stems, creating vase-shaped clumps. It starts blooming in early summer and continues for a month or more. The densely packed flowers bloom in a ring around the flower head, starting at the bottom and working up to the top. Purple prairie clover is a delicate-looking plant with unique rose-purple to crimson flowers.