Plant profile: Obedient plant

Physostegia virginiana

Plenty of plants bloom beautifully in spring. But if you're looking for late-season color, try obedient plant, a native perennial that's perfect for informal gardens. (This easy-to-grow plant also will do just fine in formal gardens, but its exuberantly spreading growth habit may have to be curbed a bit.)

Obedient plant spreads from rhizomes to form an expanding clump. A member of the mint family, it sends up many square, upright stems clad in lance-shaped, dark green leaves. Its spikes of flowers, which are densely packed with tubular, bright lavender blossoms, appear from late summer into fall. Cultivars include 'Vivid' (vibrant purplish pink flowers), 'Miss Manners' (white flowers on compact plants) and 'Variegata' (white-margined foliage).

Obedient plant grows well in a range of soil types, though it grows best in evenly moist, fertile soil. It's wise to deadhead the spent flowers to prevent reseeding.

Combine it with other moisture-seeking perennials, such as cardinal flower, great blue lobelia, monkshood, culver's root, joe-pye weed, swamp milkweed, turtleheads and snakeroot for a procession of garden color. In large open areas you can let it run to form a tall ground cover. Obedient plant also makes a nice upright element in large container plantings, and its flowering stems make excellent cut flowers.

Plant type: Native herbaceous perennial.

Hardiness: Zone 3.

Size: 2 to 4 feet tall.

Available as: Container-grown plants at nurseries; species can be grown from seed.

Fun fact: You can push individual flowers up, down, or to the side and they'll stay in that position -- that's why it's called "obedient plant."