Horsetail (Scouring Rush)
Equisetum hyemale. EQUISETACEAE.
Planting and Growing Horsetail
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow horsetail in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, foliage, and root structure of horsetail
- Plant hardiness and growing conditions for horsetail
- Season of bloom and planting time for horsetail
- When, how deep, and where to plant horsetail
- How to plant horsetail
- Watering, fertilizing, care, and pests or diseases of horsetail
- Landscape and container uses of horsetail
- Comments about horsetail and its features
Growing Horsetail
Several cultivars of bunching, erect, primitive, stoloniferous, rushlike perennial herbs, 2–4 ft. (60–120 cm) tall, related to ferns. Leafless, jointed, hollow green stems bear spiky cones in summer–autumn.
Variegated horsetail, Equisetum variegatum, a close relative with radiating, tuftlike protrusions from its main stems, has similar care needs.
Planting and Care Guide
Blooms
Primitive plant grown for unusual foliage. Like ferns, horsetail reproduces from tiny cone-like structures that hold its spores, rather than the seeds typical of flowering plants.
Best Climates
Hardy. Zones 3–11.
Soil Type and Fertility
Damp, well-drained, sandy soil or, in water features, shoreline or shallow marginal sites. Fertility: Average. 6.5–7.5 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Spring in full sun to partial shade, 2 ft. (60 cm) apart, or submerged to 6 in. (15 cm). Plant in buried containers to limit invasive spread.
Proper Care
Easy. Keep evenly moist. Avoid fertilizing. Remove dead stalks and stems. Protect from heat, wind. Propagate by division, offsets.
About This Plant
Good choice for accents, backgrounds in natural, woodland gardens and water feature margins, shorelines. Invasive. Pest and disease resistant. Stems of horsetail contain abrasive silica crystals once used to clean cookware, the origin of its alternate common name, scouring rush.