ALL THE BUZZ! 

Belinda Leach

Summer is winding down at the Memorial Garden at the Vance County Regional Farmers Market. The plants and flowers have been doing what they do for our pollinator friends.  But there are more warm temperatures ahead and our pollinators still have much work to do.  Enter the amazing plant, Eutrochium dubium, a.k.a. Joe-Pye Weed.  Joe has been hanging out in the garden all spring and summer with his handsome large, dark green leaves patiently awaiting his time on stage. In late summer, Joe starts producing his large, airy clusters of inflorescences that range from light pink to dark purple and provide important late season nectar to the bees and butterflies.    

Joe-Pye Weed is a plant that is almost always happy where you plant him.  He likes a variety of soils, enjoys wet feet, but can endure some drought conditions, and will take full sun or part sun. Deer do not bother him, nor do other insects or diseases.  

Because Joe-Pye gets tall, six to eight feet in height, he is most suited for the back of a garden bed and needs plenty of room to spread out.  He can be made less leggy and become stockier by cutting back the plant by half in early summer.  Joe spreads through self-seeding and can be divided in the spring. As interesting as the plant, so too is the way it got its name.  The legend is that a New England medicine man, Joe Pye, used the plant to cure typhus.

The Memorial Garden is home to three cultivars of Joe-Pye; Eutrochium dubium “Baby Joe” and “Little Joe” and Eutrochium maculatum “Phantom”.  These plants will have another life this winter as the dried flower head will be left for the birds.  

Another spectacular display in the late summer garden is Solidago rugosa 'Fireworks', Fireworks Goldenrod.   This beauty looks like a huge display of bursting skyrockets with small, narrow, dark green leaves and tiny yellow or gold florets on long rigid stems.  

Goldenrod is just now becoming used frequently in gardens.   It has often been mistaken for ragweed which is hated by allergy sufferers.  Unlike ragweed, its pollen is not windblown, but the pollen has to be moved from plant to plant by our wonderful pollinator friends who are looking for late season nectar.  Goldenrod is easy to grow as it is a sun to part shade loving plant that will tolerate drought and poor soil, has few disease and insect problems and is deer resistant.

Salidago is wonderful as an accent in the back of a garden or border as it will get three to four feet tall.  Since it blooms in late summer, it provides a beautiful backdrop for late summer bloomers such as purple and blue asters and fall blooming flowers like chrysanthemums.  Goldenrod will stay blooming until frost and its droopy stems will provide interest to the garden in winter.

Adding Joe-Pye and Goldenrod will add a dazzling season finale to any garden.  

Editor’s note: If you are familiar with Joe Pye Weed being in the genus Eupatorium your memory is correct. Taxonomists have reclassified it as Eutrochium as correctly used in Ms. Leach’s article.