Queen of the Prairie Filipendulina rubra

Queen of the Prairie’s airy, cotton candy pink blossoms are sure to brighten your mid-summer garden.

Native to moist prairies, woodlands, and other wet areas this 5-feet-tall plant prefers full sun or partial shade and moist soil.

Plants will spread by seed and underground stems called rhizomes.  Slow its spread by removing flowers as they fade.

This deadheading won’t encourage more blooms but will prevent new seedlings from forming. 

Pruning it back a bit harder will allow more sunshine to reach neighboring plants and eliminates brown leaves that develop on plants growing in hot dry locations.

Combine this royal beauty with other moisture lovers like swamp milkweed and Joe Pye weed in sunny locations. Cardinal flower and turtlehead make great companions in the shade.

And add a few of these sweetly fragrant flowers to your summer bouquets.

A bit more information: This member of the rose family is hardy in zones 3 to 8 and some parts of 9. Deer and rabbits tend to leave it be.