Ptilotus Seeds

Ptilotus exaltatus

Each Lamb's Tail Joey™lavender-silver bloomspike lasts 3 months or more in garden or vase. An Australian native that is a long lasting annual that will stand up to hotter, drier summers. Ptilotus begins blooming when the days grow long (late spring in most climates) and doesn't quit until the nip of autumn.With it's silvery pinkish lavender blooms, you will hardly even notice that it grows great in loose, dry soil in a sunny area. The leaves are 3 to 5 inches long, make the perfect backdrop for the blooms, which arise in fat cones up to 5 inches high and packed with slender, gleaming petals. Pick all you like for indoor arrangements (fresh and dried); they will continue to set flowers all summer long. In the garden it reaches 12 to 15 inches high and 10 to 12 inches long, and it may be grown easily in containers, but be careful not to allow it to get pot-bound, or it will stay much smaller than its full size. Actually a tender perennial rather than an annual, it will come back for years of enjoyment in zones 9 and 10, and is easy for the rest of us to begin again each spring.