The Fall-Blooming Flower That Ensures Hummingbirds Will Keep Coming Back To Your Garden

If you want to add a hardy perennial to your garden that will help keep your hummingbirds happy this autumn, then head to the nursery and buy some ironweed. Either the New York variety (Vernonia noveboracensis) or giant ironweed (Vernonia gigantea) will do the trick. You can count on ironweed as one beautiful garden solution hummingbirds can't get enough of.

This wildflower is related to aster flowers. Both New York and giant ironweed can still be found growing wild in North America as they draw in hummingbirds and butterflies with sweet nectar. It's such a friend to pollinators, that one variety even earned a place on a U.S. postage stamp in 2007 that celebrated pollinators and plants. This flower gets its name, ironweed, because it's a tenacious plant with strong roots and an even stiffer stem.

This late-flowering perennial often comes in rich hues of magenta or purple. It isn't just a magnet for hummingbirds, either. Other birds like to eat its seeds. And there's plenty to go around since one giant ironweed plant can produce thousands of them. Another fun fact: New York ironweed and giant ironweed sometimes provide a home for solitary bees. Some have been known to nest in dead, empty stalks of the flower kept around after the blooms have faded. These aren't big social bee colonies but solitary wasps or bees who might lay an egg inside a hollow stalk.

Ironweed is a no-fuss perennial, so making it happy shouldn't be too hard to do. New York ironweed is hardy in USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 5 through 9 while itsgiant counterpart will thrive in zones 5 to 8. Both are relatively easy to grow, especially if you get a lot of rain or your yard includes a water feature or stream. Because it doesn't mind wet conditions and can tolerate the occasional water-log , you can consider it partially flood-resistant and add it to the list of shrubs you plant in a flood plain or a rain garden.

When you're trying to figure out which variety to plant, keep the height difference in mind. Giant ironweed truly is giant — often growing as high as 10 feet tall. New York ironweed is more likely to be about half that size. But don't worry if you don't want to have to crane your neck upward to look at your flowers. You can also prune back both varieties later in the winter or even in the early spring if you want to keep them lower to the ground.

Both varieties will tolerate full sun or partial shade, but they prefer slightly acidic soil. Ironweed does best when it's left alone. Too much fertilizer might get you some drooping stems, which isn't fun for you or your tiny visitors. Ironweed is just one flower hummingbirds love. So if it isn't quite what you're looking for, there are many more flowers that will easily attract hummingbirds to your garden.