Rewilding My Lot

This has been my first year to have Frostweed (Verbesina virginica) plants. They are so called because their stems crack open during the first hard freeze of the winter, and the sap that is pushed out forms ice sculptures. My two young plants did exactly that, and the photo above shows one of them.

This process tears the outer layer from the stem. In the photo below, taken in late January, the inner part of the stem is the yellower structure and just to the right is the outer sheath of the stem that has broken away. (The stick on the right is a bamboo marker, and the short green leaves are wildflowers that I have subsequently thinned out to give the Frostweed more space.)

With this being the first year of owning a Frostweed, I didn’t know what would happen next. Would the original stem heal? Or would the plant grow a new stem from the ground? The answer is that the old stem dies and new stems grow to replace it.

This is the Frostweed that is pictured above, after the regrowth has started. Two stems are growing to replace the original one (which is the stick on the left).

The other plant, in a shadier location, is doing very well. Here, I am pointing to the old stem that has been cut a couple of inches from the ground. The new plant is already about a foot tall.