General Plant Information (Edit)
Plant Habit: Herb/Forb
Life cycle: Perennial
Sun Requirements: Full Sun
Full Sun to Partial Shade
Water Preferences: Wet
Wet Mesic
Mesic
Soil pH Preferences: Slightly acid (6.1 – 6.5)
Neutral (6.6 – 7.3)
Minimum cold hardiness: Zone 3 -40 °C (-40 °F) to -37.2 °C (-35)
Maximum recommended zone: Zone 8b
Plant Height: 1.20 - 1.80 m; 4 to 6 feet, to 8 feet possible
Plant Spread: 60-90 cm; 3 to 4 feet, but spreads
Leaves: Deciduous
Flowers: Showy
Fragrant
Flower Color: Pink
Flower Time: Late spring or early summer
Summer
Underground structures: Rhizome
Suitable Locations: Bog gardening
Uses: Will Naturalize
Wildlife Attractant: Bees
Butterflies
Resistances: Rabbit Resistant
Flood Resistant
Propagation: Seeds: Self fertile
Suitable for wintersowing
Start indoors
Propagation: Other methods: Division
Pollinators: Self
Beetles
Flies
Bees
Containers: Suitable in 3 gallon or larger
Miscellaneous: Monoecious

Image
Common names
  • Queen of the Prairie
  • Pink Meadowsweet
Botanical names
  • Accepted: Filipendula rubra
  • Synonym: Spiraea rubra
Also sold as:
  • Venusta Magnifica

Photo Gallery
Location: Apple Valley MN
Date: 2020-07-17
Location: Invercargill, New Zealand
Date: 2024-01-08
Filipendula in full bloom says 'Mid-summer'!
Location: Bogie Lake Greenhouse, White Lake, MI
Date: 2009-09-13
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2012-06-17
close-up of flower cluster
Location: Heathcote Ontario Canada
Date: 2019 July
Filipendula rubra'Venusta Magnifica'  Early blooms
Location: RHS Harlow Carr, Yorkshire, UK
Date: 2021-07-15

Date: 2015-06-29
Location: In my Northern California garden
Date: 2013-06-25
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2020-07-03
tall plant with Red Chokeberry at back fence
Location: RHS Harlow Carr, Yorkshire, UK
Date: 2020-07-25
Location: RHS Harlow Carr, Yorkshire, UK
Date: 2020-07-25
Photo by crawgarden
Location: Bogie Lake Greenhouse, White Lake, MI
Date: 2009-09-13

Photo courtesy of Joy Creek Nursery
Location: Apple Valley MN
Date: 06 May 2018

Courtesy Crownsville Nursery
  • Uploaded by vic
Location: RHS Harlow Carr, Yorkshire, UK
Date: 2020-07-25
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2012-06-17
group in bloom
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2012-06-17
focusing on foliage
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2014-05-05
leaves just emerged in May
Location: In my Northern California garden
Date: 2005-07-13
Location: Bogie Lake Greenhouse, White Lake, MI
Date: 2009-09-13
Location: Bogie Lake Greenhouse, White Lake, MI
Date: 2009-09-13
Location: RHS Harlow Carr, Yorkshire UK
Date: 2022-04-30
Location: My garden in Gent, Belgium
Date: 2012-04-08
Location: Main Botanical Garden at the Academy of Sciences in Moscow
Date: July
credit: Andrey Korzun

Courtesy Crownsville Nursery
  • Uploaded by vic
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2012-06-17
plants in bloom in naturalistic garden
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2012-06-15
pink bloom at tops

Photo Courtesy of Busse Gardens. Used with permission.
  • Uploaded by Joy

Photo Courtesy of Lazy S'S Farm Nursery.
  • Uploaded by Joy

Photo Courtesy of Lazy S'S Farm Nursery.
  • Uploaded by Joy
Location: My garden in Gent, Belgium
Date: 2012-04-08
This plant is tagged in:
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Comments:
  • Posted by ILPARW (southeast Pennsylvania - Zone 6b) on Feb 19, 2018 5:37 PM concerning plant:
    In November of 2005 I stopped by at a large, famous garden center of Waterloo Gardens in southeast Pennsylvania that was having a perennial plant sale before winter. I bought one pot of this 'Venusta' Queen-of-the-Prairie. I planted it in my backyard naturalistic garden. It grew quickly over the next year and bloomed some the next summer. Over time it spread from being a clump to a small colony. It is easy to divide and reset and make more. It does self-sow some as other plants came up in other parts of the garden. My good quality clay soil is mesic and that was good most years, but this forb suffers during drought and needed some watering some dry summers. Its preferred soil is draining wet. The large, cloud-like flower clusters are a little darker pink than the straight species; and there are some plants of the mother species that have a very light pink or whitish flower color. The flowers attract a good number of bees and butterflies and other pollinators. The flowers smell so good, like lilac. It blooms about 3 weeks in June or early July here in Zone 6b. The flowering scapes and tops of the plants are good to be cut back when the flower clusters become brown. In nature it grows in moist or wet meadows and prairies from New England to Iowa south to Georgia. Some of this cultivar are sold at a good number of conventional nurseries, though I don't see it commonly planted in yards. (Most people just know Bearded Iris, Peony, Mums, Roses, Hosta, and Daylilies.) Native nurseries sell the mother species that usually also have good pink color in bloom.
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aspenhill On April 23, 2014 Obtained plant
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