Obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana) is also known as False Dragonhead, Fall Obedient Plant, or Virginia Lions-Heart. Sow these Obedient plant seeds and enjoy tall terminal spikes of pink/purple and white snapdragon like flowers in your garden. Stems are square with flowers growing on all four sides. The leaves of the obedient plant are 4-6″ long and slender (lanceolate) with a serrated saw blade edge. Like other members of the mint family the Obedient plants produces large amounts of nectars and is loved by bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Blooms from summer into fall which provides a nice source of food for pollinators before winter.

Obedient plant seeds will naturally drop from the plant resulting in nearby volunteers which can be allowed to grow or transplanted elsewhere in the garden. Although a member of the mint family but will not spread rapidly. Forms a clumping rhizomatous base which can be divided every two years. These plants thrive in wetter soils and work great to fill in large voids in the planting beds. The name of this plant comes from the way flowers can be repositioned and stay obediently.

Sowing the Obedient Plant seeds

Like many wildflower seeds, germination rates will improve if a stratification period occurs. This happens naturally in the garden as seeds are dropped before winter, experience a period of cold, then sprout in the spring. If sowing indoors in containers pre-Spring it’s best to refrigerate the seeds for several weeks prior to sowing. You optionally could sow the seeds in the garden directly before the freeze period and they will emerge when the weather warms. If you’d like to sow outdoors, we recommend doing so in containers. Simply sow the seeds, place the containers outdoors, and ensure they receive moisture as the weather warms. This method will eliminate the risk of something like a digging squirrel from displacing the seeds. Be sure and check out our article about how to grow Obedient Plant from seed.