This splendid cultivar was selected from the indigenous Shooting Stars found throughout eastern and central North America’s open woodlands, meadows and prairies. A floriferous delight for floral artists, plant lovers and bumblebees, ‘Aphrodite’s nodding grape-scented blooms are twice as large as her native kin’s, parading five swept-back vivid magenta petals with irregular white, yellow and maroon rings around a unique beak-shaped cluster of yellow stamens. The jaunty display sojourns above numerous upright 6 in. long stalks plus lance-shaped green leaves, which form a deer-resistant rosette and often experience a summer dormancy. Provide dappled shade and moist, well-drained humus-enriched soil in the rockery, a naturalized planting, wooded area or waterside to preserve her goddess status.

Blooms May–June

Size: 18" – 20" high x 10" – 12" wide.

Hardy to zone 4.