The Outdoor Journal: Ironweed

It still feels like summer outside but the back to school rush is on and football is just around the corner. The Yellow flowers of early fall are just beginning to show along the roadsides and prairie remnants. One of the stars of late summer stands out each year because it “never slouches” and is not yellow at all. It is the wild flower we know as Iron weed. It grows in old fields and roadsides in our area, but is also used by some folks in gardens.  According to Better Homes and Gardens, Ironweed “Stands 4 to 6 feet tall at maturity, (and) boasts a big garden presence when it begins blooming in late summer. That’s because clusters of bright purple flowers decorate its tall stems for 6 weeks or more at the end of the growing season. Ironweed received its common name from its ironlike qualities: tough stems, tenacious growing habit, and flowers that give way to seed clusters the color of rust.”

It’s very attractive to butterflies and other pollinators. In fact, “Ironweed provides nectar loved by: long-tongue bees, flies, skippers, and butterflies such as monarchs, swallowtails, and American painted ladies. It also provides a food source for caterpillar moths.” 

BH&G  says that Ironweed is low-maintenance and grows best with full sun and rich, moist almost acidic soil . “This perennial also thrives in casual cottage gardens, native prairie gardens, meadows, and other naturalized areas. Ironweed’s bitter foliage makes it undesirable to most grazing animals, so it is considered a weed in pasture plantings.

Ironweed spreads readily through self-seeding.”   You can limit it’s spread by snipping off flower heads before the seeds develop. You can also  reduce the overall height of mature plants in late spring by cutting young stems back almost to the ground.