Quaker Ladies – Houstonia Caerulea

Folks looking for a delicately small and beautiful wildflower plant to decorate their garden with should consider planting Quaker Lady Bluets. The growing conditions and care of this plant are a relatively easy undertaking and will reward owners with beautiful blooms every year. Quaker Lady Bluets are relatively hardy and perennial plants that grow outdoors year-round.

They are capable of surviving with minimal care as they are self-seeding plants and once you plant a few of them, more are sure to grow on their own, season after season. They are commonly found in lightly shaded wooded areas, but as winds and birds disperse the seeds, you can find them growing in other areas. In the garden, beautiful bluets often provide an attractive ground cover under taller spring-blooming flowers, and they tend to bloom most actively in the spring.

 Still, some flowering continues into summer and fall. Folks typically use these plants to cover bare patches of landscape with the beautiful blue carpet of these flowers once they bloom. Other people like to use these wildflower bluets to encircle steppingstones, line garden pathways, or accompany other flowers. 

 Quaker Lady Bluets only have average watering needs, so it is best to water regularly but without overdoing it. They prefer to receive some amount of Sun with partial shade because they tend to do best in shady woodlands. It is recommended to plant them in a moderately sunny to a sheltered location, but in a way as to avoid the hot afternoon sun. Bluets prefer their soil condition to be moist to dry-moist organic soil that is slightly acidic. 

They grow well in either sandy or thin rocky soil. Quaker Lady Bluets are approximately 3-6” inches tall and produce four-parted flowers that are about 1 cm across and ½” long. Bluets are readily visible in New England in Spring and can be found south of Florida and Texas. The flowers have a pale blue color with a yellowish center attracting cute little Carpenter bees, Green Metallic bees, butterflies, and insects.