Add an unusual perennial wildflower to your wildflower garden that brings beauty and serves pollinators and birds throughout the year! White crownbeard wildflowers are summertime pollinator magnets throughout the eastern USA, and Spirit Tree Farms has bare root plants available!
Crownbeards’ Late Summer Blooms
Crownbeards — aka Verbesina virginica, wingstem, frostweed, ice flower, or frost flower — is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. White crownbeards are USA-native wildflowers. In the mid to late summer crownbeards form large and attractive flower heads which draw in pollinators, including monarch butterflies, gulf frittary butterflies; native bees, wasps, and flies; honeybees; hummingbirds; dragonflies; and dozens of other butterflies and moths.
Ice Flowers’ Winter Magic
Crownbeards are also called frost flowers, frostweed, or ice flowers. It’s well after their blooms have faded and temperatures dip below freezing that the crownbeard’s true magic begins. This video shows crownbeards in bloom, attracting pollinators. Then, as the season progresses, crownbeards form amazing frost flowers or ice flowers. Watch for my great-niece’s explanation of “I Feel the Power!” eating ice flowers.
White Crownbeard can grow up to 5 feet tall before forming flowers; trimming the tops helps them form multiple blossom heads. Leaving the crownbeard’s seed heads on provides seeds for birds during the lean late fall and winter months. These months are also a great time to look at the base of the plant for ephemeral, delicate and rare frost flowers. Learn more about crownbeard as a wildflower, pollinator magnet, and frost flower source.
Crownbeard / Frostflowers Bare Root Plants Now Available!
Spirit Tree Farms offers White Crownbeard (Verbesina virginica) as bare root plants to pollinator protectors and wildflower enthusiasts in crownbeard’s native range (Eastern USA). Our Crownbeard / Frost Flower roots come packaged in sustainable coconut coir or recyclable paper, lightly moistened to preserve them while shipping. We ship the roots in units of 6 or 12 from our small family farm in Northwest Georgia. Contact us for pricing based on your location. We also can do large orders by request. Send us an email explaining what you’re looking for … and get ready to enjoy the multi-season magic of the crownbeard / frost flower wildflower!
