Statice Cut Flower Production in Utah Kellie Webb, Melanie Stock, Ben Scow, Cheyenne Reid, Victoria Xiong, Ali Harrison, Lorin Harrison, Amanda Pratt, Claudia Nischwitz, and Nick Volesky
Overview
Statice is a cut-and-come-again, full-sun annual with clustered, papery blooms. Plants have lower water needs and a moderate tolerance to salinity, making this crop a sustainable choice for cut flower production in Utah and other states with water and soil limitations. Blooms come in a diverse color palette, featuring subtle apricot, yellow, white, purple, pink, and blue hues. Statice is an exceptional flower for drying, as it is nearly dried in the field at harvest and does not require hanging. The versatility of selling statice as both a fresh and dried cut flower increases its value for Utah growers. Suited to both high tunnel and field production, statice is a hardworking and consistent filler that thrives when given a cool start to the season.
University (USU) trials, 10 to 15 stems per plant were typical yields to expect locally. It is important to note that many newer annual and hybrid cultivars are offered exclusively through tissuecultured starts (i.e., not available as seed) from wholesale suppliers. Tissue-culture methods are meant to genetically maintain selected traits for greater predictability and increased production of blooms. Example traits include heat and cold tolerance, longer blooming windows, greater yield per plant, and more consistent color shades. Confirming the traits and economics of tissue-grown versus seed-grown statice may be an interesting research area for Intermountain West growers.
Cultivars
Three types of statice (Limonium sp.) are used in commercial cut flower production: annual statice (L. sinuatum and L. suworowii), perennial statice (L. bellidifolium, L. latifolium, L. perezii, L. altaica, and L. dumosa), and hybrid or peripheral statice (L. sinzii and L. sinense). Most statice is propagated by seed and readily available from cut flower seed suppliers. Cultivars of L. sinuatum are one of the most popular annual cut flowers and the focus of this fact sheet. These cultivars have distinctive, nearly leafless stems that rise from basal rosettes. The blooms appear as 1.5- to 3-inch clusters of papery, funnel-like florets (Figure 1). Popular cultivars include ‘Forever Happy, ‘QIS Apricot’, and ‘Seeker Blue’ (Table 1). Plants can reach up to 30 inches tall in the field, and each plant may produce 10 to 30 stems under ideal conditions. Through Utah State
Figure 1. ‘QIS Apricot’ freshly harvested from the field.
Utah State University Extension | September 2025 | Peer-Reviewed Fact Sheet | CutFlower/01
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