Clarkia unguiculata wild, Mountain Garland 'Wild Form'

We are excited to now provide the 'wild grown form' of Clarkia unguiculata. With larger, stunning blossoms more widely spread along the stem, they are a bee magnet! This species makes one of the longest-lived cut flowers as well. It can last in a vase for over a month.

This wild form of mountain garland, the tallest of the clarkias, rises on long slender flower spikes from 2-5' tall. In shades of bright pink, purple, and soft lavender to white, it is beautiful at the back of the flower border or with individuals rising up from a mass of lower-growing flowers. I like it in islands among chaparral shrubs, like Artemisia californica, California sagebrush. Blooming early to mid-summer, its flowering can be prolonged with successional sowings.

Also, it is the host plant (required nursery) for the caterpillar of the "Day-flying Clark's Sphinx Hawkmoth" (Proserpinus clarkiae), a beautiful native hawk moth found throughout California and the West, and to be viewed in the slideshow above. All clarkias are used as a nectar source for other beautiful and colorful day flying hawk moths, such as the the white-lined Sphinx and the glass winged hummingbird moths.