Sustainable Landscaping with Native Plants

Joe Pye Weed – Eutrochium purpureum

**a “Shady Character“**

A client who has an extensive full to part shade landscaped garden bed was inquiring about some native plants that would add both color and height to his bed, which had a backdrop comprised of a stone-wall that flowed the length of the bed and was from four to seven feet in height.

This shady character fit the bill to a tee. A butterfly favorite, it is easy to grow and its vanilla-scented flowers are irresistible for Monarchs, Swallowtails and many other butterflies. Not many Woodland flowering plants can reach heights of 7′. If you love Joe Pye Weed but have too much shade, Sweet Joe Pye Weed is the plant for you.

Eupatorium purpureum matures to be 4 to 7 feet in height and blooms from July to September. It has pale pink to pale purple flowers in large clusters and large leaves in whorls around the stem. Plant Sweet Joe Pye Weed in moist, well-drained, rich garden soil in partial to full shade with Tall Bellflower and Wild Golden Glow for a stunning tall savanna or woodland garden.

In the past Native Americans used this plant to cure fevers. Sweet Joe Pye Weed is deer-resistant and makes a wonderful cut flower. It is also commonly called Sweetscented Joe Pye Weed, and scientifically, Eutrochium purpureum.

There are two versions of how the joe-pye weed got its name. The most common one traces it to a 18th Century Native American medicine man named Joe Pye, who traveled the length of New England treating fevers — typhoid fever in particular — with an infusion made from the plant’s leaves. The other story asserts that joe-pye is a corruption of the Native American word for typhoid, jopi.