Joe Pye

My Joe Pye weed is in full glory right now and the butterflies are loving it.

Each spring I look for the new shoots to come up and cut back the dead stalks from the previous year. This plant is now in its sixth summer and as you can see has grown massive. It's in the perfect spot next to the pond.


When we moved here there was one in the glen next to the creek but I only saw it for one summer. I discovered one year that the deer eat it and that was the year I had no blooms.


Who is this Joe Pye and how did his name get on such a lovely late summer bloomer? According to wikepedia "Joe Pye, an Indian healer from New England, used E. purpureum to treat a variety of ailments, which led to the name Joe-Pye weed for these plants."

Joe Pye weed, a graceful soft contribution to the late summer garden. May you have many more years of bloom.