Phacelia tanacetifolia seed

LATIN NAME: Phacelia tanacetifolia

COMMON NAME: Phacelia

Phacelia is the fine, curling, blue-flowered cover crop that the bees cannot leave alone. The upright, branching annual carries the soft, deeply divided, ferny leaves, and the small, bell-shaped, lavender-blue flowers open in the tight, one-sided curls through the summer, one of the great nectar flowers of the garden. The whole plant is quick, easy and generous, and it is one of the great green manures of the vegetable garden. It is a plant of the open, sunny, well-drained ground.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

Phacelia has carved a quiet but solid place in the plant science, and the annual has been studied for the tight, one-sided curls of the lavender-blue flowers and its fine place among the nectar plants. The way the plant feeds the bees and the hoverflies has been studied closely, and it keeps showing up in the work on the cover crops, the green manures and the insectary plants of the garden. The soft, deeply divided leaves and the quick, easy habit have also made it a fine garden plant, and the phacelia is a regular subject of the studies of the plants of the waterleaf family.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

Phacelia does a lot of work in the garden and the wider world. The small, bell-shaped, lavender-blue flowers are one of the great nectar flowers of the garden, feeding the bees, the hoverflies and the butterflies through the summer, and the quick, easy annual is one of the great green manures, smothering the weeds and feeding the soil. The soft, ferny leaves and the curling flower heads give it a fine, airy presence in the border and the wild corner. It has been written about in the agricultural and the horticultural papers for the nectar and the green manure, and it is a fine, easy plant of the open, sunny, well-drained garden.

Phacelia is one of the great nectar plants of the garden, and the tight, one-sided curls of the lavender-blue flowers are never without the bees through the summer. The soft, deeply divided leaves give the quick, easy annual a fine, airy look, and the plant is one of the great green manures for the vegetable patch.

To grow the phacelia from seed, scatter the fine seeds over the surface of a prepared seedbed or the pots of moist, free-draining soil and press them in lightly, keep them in a bright, open spot and water gently. The seedlings show themselves within a week or two and grow on fast. With the sun and the well-drained ground, the curling, lavender-blue flower heads will be alive with the bees through the summer.

This heavy blooming, nectar rich flower is often grown as a bee plant. The light blue to purple bell-shaped blossoms grow in fiddlehead clusters atop the stems. Long blooming and low maintenance plant is deer- and drought-tolerant.