Native Purple Prairie Clover (Dalea purpurea) At Home in Your Garden

You don’t need a prairie to enjoy the beauty and butterfly appeal of purple prairie clover.  It’s at home in a traditional perennial garden, mixed border or rain garden. 

These native beauties are slow to get started. They spend the first year or two in the garden putting down deep drought and heat tolerant roots. Once the plant gets growing it can reach up to 3’ tall.

The tiny rosy purple flowers form a dense cone shaped head and appear from June to August. The showy flowers attract butterflies as well as native, bumble and honey bees. They also make great additions to cut flower arrangements.
Combine it with alliums, butterfly weed, purple coneflowers, liatris, and grasses.

Grow Purple Prairie clover in full sun and well-drained soils.  It adapts to a variety of soils and is drought tolerant once established.

A bit more information: Dalea purpurea is hardy in zones 3 to 8. It is native to central North America from Ontario to Georgia west to Alberta and Arizona.