Description
Ageratum houstonianum (syn Ageratum mexicanum) | Floss Flower ‘Blue Bouquet’
Floss Flower, also called Blue Mink, Blue Top, Blue Weed, Garden Ageratum, Invading Ageratum, Mexican Ageratum, Tropic Ageratum, Todd’s Curse, Pussy Foot, and Mexican paintbrush, is a cool-season broadleaf annual that’s native to Central and South America. Ageratum houstonianum is from Mexico, named for William Houston in the 1700’s, a Scottish physician who collected the first plants. Often found growing in gardens, roadsides, disturbed sites, waste areas, pastures, crops, wetlands and waterways
The flowers on Ageratum ‘Blue Bouquet’ comes in a beautiful pale periwinkle shade of blue and the flowers are arranged in dense clusters at the tips of branches. The soft fuzzy blooms are dainty and feathery and completely cover the plants. Each flower cluster consists of five to 15 tubular florets and bloom endlessly right up into late October. No deadheading is required.
While the species grows to a height of over two feet and reseeds itself liberally, this hybrid is more compact and better behaved. Floss Flower ‘Blue Bouquet’ grows in neat mounds, flowering from late spring through fall and is one of the more dependable flowering annuals. Because of its short stature, it is best used for edging the garden, or as part of a border or flower bed, in rock gardens or in containers. Looks phenomenal planted with white foliage plants or pink or yellow flowering plants.
Start seeds indoors in February to March. Surface sow. Do not cover tiny seeds with soil.
Attractive to bees, butterflies and beneficial insects.