Vernonia Species, Giant Ironweed, Tall Ironweed

This plant is a favorite of all pollinators. Right now, my largest one is about 6 feet and already starting to make buds in my zone 6b ga...Read Morerden. I added a few more this season just because it’s such a huge hit with all flying creatures. It’s in a part sun area and still blooms well and of course it’s a native so what could be better than that?

I rate this one as lovely. It grows wild here but I could not get the seeds I collected to germinate. So I found a source of seed on-li...Read Morene and bought them They came up and bloomed very nicely. Luciee {;^)

In its second year in the perennial garden this plant has formed a bushel-sized clump and has reached 9' tall. It is tied to a fence post...Read More, otherwise I'm sure it would not stand erect on its own, especially after the weight of rain on open flowers. The flowers are very numerous and blue-purple in color. Bees like them and I have seen some butterflies on the flowers as well (although they prefer the neighboring buddleias). Supposedly, goldfinches like ironweed seeds, and I hope that is true!

This is truly a massive plant with almost flourescent purple blooms. Unfortunately, the bloom period is limited to about three weeks. The...Read More "Ironweed" may refer to its roots - even a six inch first year plant had deep, thick, iron-like roots. In full sun, first year growth was over six feet and second year reached over nine feet (see posted image).