There is a flower that grows well in the Southwest that smells like chocolate. The Chocolate Flower (Berlandiera lyrata) casts its rich scent throughout your garden. Be sure to plant it where you can bend over and take a whiff on those occasional days with no breeze. It’s an easy plant to grow and care for.
No wonder chocolate flower is easy to grow in New Mexico; it is native to dry plains and hills of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Texas and Kansas. It grows best in elevations of 4,000 to 7,000 feet, so Berlanderia thrives in high deserts and intermountain areas like mine. Chocolate flower is a perennial in zones 4 through 9.
Because it’s native, and probably because it looks and smells so great, chocolate flower attracts butterflies, bees and birds. And deer leave it alone! Need more reasons to grow chocolate flower? It reseeds naturally, but not aggressively, so one plant can turn into a few or more, depending on lots of conditions and where you plant the first one. Another great feature of this native is that it will reseed more naturally if planted near rocks or gravel mulch. The rocks “trap” the seeds when they blow in the wind.
Chocolate Flower Care
You can plant chocolate flower in nearly any type of soil, but it will do best if the soil drains well. Be sure to place it where it will receive plenty of sun – up to all day – and where its mature height (about a foot to 15 inches tall, and up to two feet wide) will work without overcrowding. Give it a little more water the first year, and then chocolate flower should grow and bloom with mostly rain only. Each spring, trim off dead flower stalks and some of the foliage if necessary to keep the plant base about three inches high.
It can be hard to tell the difference between spent blooms and the new ones for deadheading. Unopened blossoms have a pretty green and papery look. The circled one in the image above is a spent, dried up bloom for deadheading or seed collection.
Deadheading, or removing spent blooms, keeps Berlanderia blooming.
It’s a good thing chocolate flower can spread, because you can’t move it. The plant has a tap root (which helps its drought tolerance) that doesn’t survive division or transplanting. Otherwise, chocolate flower is a perfect, sunny perennial for a xeric garden.
Chocolate Flower Information
Chocolate flower is in the daisy family, a relative of the sunflower and others, so it makes a nice cutting flower as part of an arrangement. You can bring that soft chocolate scent inside! The flower buds look like a sage green paper flower. Its growth habit is bright and colorful but just wild enough to fit in a natural looking, xeric landscape. Leave some of the drying flower heads on your chocolate flower at the end of the season if you want it to reseed in your garden. Then watch in spring. If conditions are right, you might see a few new crowns of chocolate flower with the distinctive leaf pattern.
- SKU:
- chocolateflower
Container Sizes
Please Note: The pictures below are to give a general representation of the different container sizes. The actual size/ages of plants are estimates and will vary based on; type of plant, time of year, last pruning & many other factors.
4.5" Pot
Also Know As:
4.5" Container
Plant Age:
~ 6 months
Plant Size:
~ 3"-6"
Pot Size:
~ 4.5"H x 3.75"W
Volume:
1.42 quarts
Quart Pot
Also Know As:
Quart
Plant Age:
~ 6 months - 1 year
Plant Size:
~ 4"-8"
Pot Size:
~ 4.75"H x 4.5"W
Volume:
1.50 quarts
2.5 Quart
Also Know As:
2.5 Quart Pot
Plant Age:
~ 1.5 - 2 years old
Plant Size:
~ 8"-12"
Pot Size:
~ 6.5"H x 6.5"W
Volume:
2.20-2.30 quarts
#1 Pot
Also Know As:
#1 Container
1 Gallon
Plant Age:
~ 1.5 - 2 years old
Plant Size:
~ 10"-14"
Pot Size:
~ 7"H x 7.75"W
Volume:
2.26-3.73 quarts
#2 Pot
Also Know As:
#2 Container
2 Gallon
Plant Age:
~ 1.5 - 3 years old
Plant Size:
~ 12"-18"
Pot Size:
~ 9.5"H x 9.5"W
Volume:
1.19-1.76 gallons
#3 Pot
Also Know As:
#3 Container
3 Gallon
Plant Age:
~ 2 - 4 years old
Plant Size:
~ 12"-30"
Pot Size:
~9.5"H x 11"W
Volume:
2.32-2.76 gallons
For more detailed information, please click here.
Plant Addict Guarantee (Included On All Plant Orders)
Plant Addicts Warranty - 1 Year (Extra Purchase Required)
Guide: How to Care for Your New Plant(s)
Planter Shipping
Standard Colors: 2-3 business days
Special Order Colors: 8 weeks - this is due to the planter being custom made with the color(s) of your choice
Please Note: On special orders there can not be any cancellations
Plant Shipping
Time of Order:
Summer Shipping
- If there is extreme heat we’ll delay shipping.
- We’ll have to review what areas the plants are traveling through along with your location
Once your plant is shipped you’ll receive an email with tracking information. Depending on the above criteria we’ll ship your plant(s) towards beginning of the following week from your order. We put together this helpful guide of what to do when you receive your plants in the mail.
It is important to know that all of our plants are clearly labeled for which growing zones the plant can survive in. The plants are thoroughly trialed and tested in every growing zone before we state the plant can grow in a zone. Again, our #1 priority is to ship the plants to you healthy and ready to thrive in your location. So we will do everything in our power to do so.
