Plant Your Meadow with Giant Ironweed

Visiting my parents in rural NJ and the meadows here are bursting with this 6-foot tall native perennial, which thrives in dry to moist soils, from prairies to roadsides to woodlands. Ironweed is food for birds, nesting habitat for the cartoonlike woodcock, and the prolific purple flowers are a magnet for pollinators. Blooms from July to September, multiplying steadily each year. Plant it! Zones 5—8.