Joe PyeFrom Craig:
This is the best time of the year for Joe Pye weed – actually the only good time of the year, in my opinion. And thus my ambivalent love for it.
Right now, as it stands five feet tall, covered in packed mauve blooms that are a magnet for honeybees and monarch butterflies, I remember why it’s in my garden at all. For a few weeks a year, it’s great. And it’s great in September, so it’s something to look forward to all summer.
But then, the rest of the season is more of a personal trial. My little forest expands every year, crowding out other plants. I pull out the new shoots on the edges they come back. Once it all really gets going in June, I cut it back down to a foot or so or else it will flop by August. Then it gets so tall again that its shade covers anything near it. And the foliage isn’t exactly attractive, but at least it’s green.
So next spring I’ll daydream about pulling it all out. But I won’t because I’ll remember what I see each time I look outside in September.