Prairie Princess Ironweed (Vernonia 'Prairie Princess')
ver-NO-nee-ah 'Prairie Princess'

Rounded, Mounded in the Asteraceae Family
A compact, rounded ironweed bred for a tidy mounded habit and weeks of rosy-purple late-season blooms.
Prairie Princess is a 2025-patented Vernonia hybrid bred by Hans A. Hansen for Walters Gardens and introduced by Proven Winners, from a 2018 cross between two unreleased breeding selections. Unlike the taller, looser ironweeds native to the prairie, it forms a neat, rounded mound of stiff, upright, heavily branched stems, with linear dark olive-green leaves that take on a purplish blush early in the season. Clusters of rosy-purple flowers (disk florets only, no ray florets) open in late summer and continue for about six weeks, with individual blooms lasting 6-8 days.

Pros

  • Compact, rounded mound habit - tidier than most ironweeds
  • Weeks of rosy-purple late-summer bloom
  • Drought-tolerant once established
  • Deer and rabbit resistant
  • Good resistance to powdery mildew

Cons

  • Stretches and flops in too much shade - needs full sun
  • A brand-new introduction (2025/2026) with limited long-term garden performance data yet
  • Mildew risk increases if airflow is poor
 

Plant Data

Mature Size 26 - 30 inches tall. 30 - 36 inches wide.
Sun Exposure Full Sun - Full Sun
Moisture Tolerance Dry - Medium
Zones 4a - 9b (Usually hardy to -30° F)
Tags Attracts Pollinators, Deer Resistant, Drought Tolerant, Dry, Full Sun, Medium, Rabbit Resistant
Bloom Period Late Summer to Early Fall
Flower Color Rosy-Purple
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Pricing and Availability History

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Field-Grown vs. Greenhouse-Grown Plants

Plants which are well-adapted to our local climate are most often field-grown (outside). Field-grown plants are generally cheaper and have the advantage of already somewhat acclimated to our cold winters, but that means they’re not artificially far along in the spring and tend to bloom at the normal time in our area.

Spring annuals and tender perennials are typically grown in Greenhouses so they can be ready and luxurious exactly when customers want them. Some perennials are also “forced” into early bloom in greenhouses. In May, there can be a very big difference between field-grown and greenhouse-grown plants of the same type. The latter typically look good right away (so they’re a great choice where that’s important), but we typically pay a premium for it.


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No Pricing or Availability Right Now

We order from a rotating cast of the best nurseries in the Great Lakes region. It looks like we've offered this plant in the past, but the nurseries we're working with this week don't appear to have it in stock at the moment.

Our goal is to bring as many plants together under "one roof" as possible, so we'll try hard to make it available again in the future!