Purple Queen Agrostemma is a frost-hardy heirloom flower that brings elegant, jewel-toned blooms to gardens across zones 2 through 10. This compact cultivar grows to a tidy 30 inches tall and produces stunning cut flowers from seed to bloom in just 84 days, making it perfect for early-season production. The plants thrive in full sun with moderate water and prefer cool-season growing conditions, rewarding patient gardeners with continuous blooms throughout summer if you succession sow every few weeks.
Full Sun
Moderate
2-10
30in H x 12in W
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Moderate
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Agrostemma githago performs best during cool weather, delivering an elegant display of purple-hued flowers from July through August when direct sown in early May. Direct seeding is the recommended method, with seeds sown just 1/8 inch deep as soon as soil is workable in spring. This heirloom variety attracts pollinators and requires minimal care once established, thriving in moderate moisture and full sun across a remarkably wide hardiness range.
Purple Queen Agrostemma serves as an elegant cut flower, particularly valued for early-season floral production. The blooms open progressively on the stem, making them excellent for fresh arrangements where you can harvest sprays with one to two flowers already open while the rest continue to unfold in the vase.
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Starting indoors is not recommended for Purple Queen Agrostemma. If you must start indoors, sow seeds 4 to 5 weeks before your last frost date at a soil temperature of 55 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, maintaining 7 to 21 days germination time. Transplant seedlings outdoors after hardening off when soil can be worked in spring.
Transplant seedlings outdoors once they have developed their first true leaves. Space plants 6 to 9 inches apart when thinning or transplanting. For zones 8 and warmer, you can also direct sow in fall or winter for earlier spring blooms.
Direct seed is the recommended method. Sow seeds outdoors as soon as soil can be worked in early spring, planting at 1/8 inch depth. For continuous bloom, succession sow at 2 to 3 week intervals until midsummer. In warmer climates (zones 8+), you may also direct sow in fall or winter.
Cut flowers when one to two blooms in each spray are already open. This staggered opening pattern makes Agrostemma excellent for fresh arrangements, as additional flowers will continue opening in the vase over several days.
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