Eupatorium tucked in amongst Rudbeckia 'Herbstsonne,
Karl Foerster feather reed grass and fountain grass Eupatorium is one of my favorite perennials at this time of year. There are a number of different species (
fistulosum,
maculatum,
purpureum, all North American natives), and you can find cultivars, hybrids and selections from these species.
Of Eupatorium in general, perennial expert Allan Armitage writes:
"One must often search high and low for its presence in American gardens. One the other hand, it is one of the architectural building blocks of British gardens. People with whom I have traveled overseas in the fall always wonder why our native plant is so well used and cherished there and so scorned and ignored here." (Herbaceous Perennial Plants, 3rd Edition, 2008)
Commonly known as Joe Pye weed, to my mind, this plant doesn't merit the "weed" part of its name. Yes, it can self-seed, but I haven't found that to be troublesome, and this is easy to prevent by deadheading.
As for the name, here's Armitage again:
"Joe Pye is said to have been a North Carolina Indian who used these plants to cure many ailments, including typhoid fever, and the plants became known as Joe Pye's weed. Perhaps changing the name to Joe Pye plant would enamor it to gardeners a little more."
Eupatorium purpureum that we grew from wild-collected seed We have Joe Pye plants growing wild along the creek that flows through a corner of our property, and a few years ago we collected seed and propagated plants to populate a low wet area near our pond. It's interesting to see how much smaller the flower heads are on the wild species.
If you've got a country garden, be sure to include this plant. It makes a great companion to ornamental grasses and other late flowering perennials. It's also long-blooming, attractive to butterflies, and provides a welcome dusky pink color when so many other late bloomers seem to be yellow (all those rudbeckias, for example).
Cultivars to look for: I can't quite remember which cultivar the Eupatorium in the pictures at the top of this post is: from its rather large flower heads, red stems, and tall habit (about five feet), I'm guessing 'Atropupureum'. According to Armitage, the big purple-flowered species aren't easy to tell apart, and many of them have hybridized, which makes them even harder to sort out.
Another well-known cultivar is 'Gateway', which grows five to six feet tall (even though it was said to be a dwarf when it was first marketed). If you're looking for a dwarf, your best bet is
Eupatorium 'Phantom', a hybrid of
E. maculatum 'Atropurpureum' and
E. rugosum that grows three to four feet tall.
© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener
It was garden designer Piet Oudolf who taught me to see beauty in plants during their fall dying away. Here are two examples from my garden, the button-like seeds heads of Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm', and a hanging seed head of giant sunflower planted by birds, which grew beside our pond.
For more information on Piet Oudolf, I have a page on my web site about his garden design ideas.
Fall is best time of year for me. Here are my reasons for loving autumn:
4. Fantastic leaf colors 
I was away last weekend in Killarney, not far from Sudbury, where I joined a fun group of people for a photo workshop, and had a lovely time. The pictures here were taken at Killarney Mountain Lodge.
Since then, I've had a kind of writer's, or should I say blogger's block, and so I haven't posted. Figured I'd better start again, and break this dry spell with some pictures from the fall garden. We've had a dry spell too in terms of rain, but the soil is still moist on most of the property, except on our south-facing hill, (below).
The New York Times recently had a good article in their Home and Garden section about creating a perennial meadow:
We've had a bit of a love affair with succulent plants. This variegated Agave americana collection began with a single plant, the biggest one in pot on the ground. It was much smaller when I bought it six or so years ago. Since then it has had many offsets, and my dear husband keeps propagating them. 
Over the weekend I drove to Michigan to visit my hort buddy, Sandy, who lives near Lansing. At the border they always ask where you're going, and when I say to visit a friend, the next question is: "How do you know her?" 
Sandy's solution to racoons destroying birdbaths by climbing on them and smashing them is to set large clay saucers (found at Ikea) on a solid foundation of bricks. It works and makes a nice garden focal point. Love that golden yucca - it just glows.
The very charming entrance to Sandy's herb and vegetable garden, fenced off with chicken wire to keep critters out.
Flowers from the garden: I just love Sandy's gorgeous arrangements. (I'm generally too lazy to go out and cut flowers.)
Back in July, this pumpkin-like mystery vine started to grow on our compost pile. It has now covered it entirely, plus our leaf mold pile, and is moving onto the mulch pile. Makes a nice camouflage of our less than attractive heaps of stuff, doesn't it?
Posts
