How to Grow Delphinium or Larkspur©

By: Arlene Wright Correll

Today I planted some Delphinium or Larkspur and I got to thinking about how grand it is as a perennial in a garden. I used to have a big patch of it, but a zealous “hired helper” mistook it for weeds two springs ago and it was pulled out and thrown on the burn pile before I realized what he had done.

I love the colors of them, the strength and height of them and we never grew them when we had the dairy farms because they are extremely dangerous to cattle.

As a perennial, Delphinium or Larkspur takes 14 to 18 days to germinate and 100 to 120 days to bloom. Put them in the back of your gardens as they grown 26 to 36 inches high and plant them 18 inches apart. There are different heights of these flowers so you can really make a stunning area by putting the short variety in the front, the next height in the middle and the tallest ones in the back. There are now even varieties that go to 5 and 6 feet tall!

Delphinium comes from the Greek word “dolphin”. These showy flowers are bluish-purple and white though not on the same stalk. If you buy a package of mixed seeds some will grow bluish-purple and some will grow white stalks and they make a lovely combination in a garden. They are not the easiest flower to grow, but they are worth the effort because they are truly beautiful.

They love full sun and deep drained soil that has high humus content, so you may have to amend that area you are planting them in.

We live in a windy area so I make sure I plant them away from the open windy part of my garden because even though they have tough stalks they are so loaded with flowers that in a strong wind instead of gently bending they will fold over and often break. Since they make grand cut flowers we just cut them at the break and bring them inside to be put in a vase of water and set on our dining room table.

After flowering you may want to remove the flower heads unless you want the seeds. Delphinium/Larkspurs are very cold hardy and really do not like a very hot summer so it helps to put them into a part of your garden that goes to shade in the afternoon.

You can increase your Delphinium/Larkspur garden by collecting the seeds and re-sowing, or by taking cuttings and using root tone or whatever you use to root start the cuttings and if you are very, very careful you can divide them.

You will keep your Delphiniums / Larkspur for a long time once you realize they like a good feeding once a year of some rich compost or some good organic 5-10-5 fertilizer and providing you do the weeding yourself!

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