Consider this colorful plant

Looking for a colorful, low maintenance plant that attracts pollinators? Consider smooth ironweed (Vernonia fasciculata, which grows best in Zones 4 – 9)⁠. Tall, lanky and charming, this prairie native looks right at home in any informal garden with its tousled purple flowers.⁠

Its natural habitats include wet prairies, meadows, marshes and riverbanks.

Why we like smooth ironweed:

It blooms midsummer to autumn

The flowers attract a variety of bees, butterflies and moths

It’s the larval host for the American painted lady butterfly

It grows 4 – 6 feet tall

Deer and rabbits tend to leave it alone

How to grow⁠ smooth ironweed:

Plant in full to part sun⁠ in moist to medium-wet soil

Design tips:

Perfect for habitat gardens, rain gardens and the back of borders

Pairs well with yellow perennial sunflowers and goldenrods, native grasses and Joe-Pye weed

Did you know? If you have other ironweed species in your garden, you could end up with a variety of hybrids because they freely interbreed.

To learn more about ironweed, read the “Plant in the Spotlight” column in the September/October 2023 issue of The American Gardener.

Courtesy of American Horticultural Society