Blazingstar, Rough - Liatris aspera

Liatris aspera, also known as Rough Blazingstar, is a perennial wildflower native to Michigan and the only Blazingstar truly native to the UP.
From 1 to 3 feet tall, Rough Blazingstar features flowers from August to September with bright purple button blossoms strung tightly on a strong stalk.
Rough Blazingstar prefers full sun and medium to dry loam, but does very well in rocky or sandy soils, including under jack pines, and will tolerate dappled shade. This is a hardy plant, well suited to many areas of the UP. It is unfazed by poor soil, but rich soil may cause flopping.
 
Blazingstars are easy nectar sources and are a favorite of many bees and butterflies, including the large showy butterflies that make a garden come alive - Monarchs, Painted Ladies, Swallowtails... Blazingstars are popular necar souces dor hummingbirds, especially when planted in a patch. Birds eat the seeds in winter, and insect hunters like bluebirds may use the strong stems as perches to scope out insect prey.
 
Deer also love blazingstars. To protect from deer, companion plant the blazingstars with Little Bluestem or other native grass, which the deer find unpalatable. You can also use the carcass of a dead spruce or other pine branches to keep deer browsing controlled, especially as the plants are getting established. 
 
To encourage your blazingstars to reseed and spread, skip the mulch after the first year or two and allow bare soil to exist in your planting. Not only will patchy vegetation allow soil and light contact to aid reseeding, many bumblebees, beneficial predatory wasps, beneficial spiders, and seed-dispersing ants also require bare soil. Birds enjoy having bare soil for dust bathing, as well as unimpeded insect hunting. Butterflies will puddle on bare soil after a rain to collect essential nutrients. Avoid the temptation to think of bare soil as "empty" or a problem to be fixed. Bare soil is one of the paints on nature's palette. Rough Blazingstar evolved to live and spread on poor soils in such sparse environments.