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Joe Pye

Large heads of violet rose flower clusters bloom in late summer and last for many weeks. Plants tolerate full sun if grown in moist soil. Great nectar plant for butterflies. An outstanding, underutilized shrub-like perennial for placement in the rear of the landscape border.

The plant is named for Joe Pye (or Jopi), who, according to folklore, was a traveling Native American medicine man. He lived in New England around the time of the American Revolution and may have been from a tribe in Maine. He sold various herbal remedies to the colonists and apparently treated typhoid fever with the plant that bears his name to this day.