Perennials: Chocolate Joe-pye weed, 1 by gregr18

gregr18 wrote:
I know which plant you're talking about, Capt, it's Eupatorium purpureum. The leaves smell like vanilla, especially in the summer when the leaves heat up in the sun. It's very nice and quite strong. It grows wild in wet areas all over southeastern MA where I live when I'm not in school. I have some on my property. This is one of the plants that people sometimes call "Sweet Joe Pye Weed". I think there are others that have the scent you are talking about, but this is the most common one. I'll attach a picture of a wild example that grows in one of my bogs.
-Greg

Edited to say I also grow the 'Chocolate' cultivar of E. rugosum. I deadhead it when the flowers start to brown up a little, and I haven't had any problems with reseeding. To keep it from getting vegetatively aggressive, I just cut the offset stalks as soon as they pop up, and I keep fertilizer as far away from the plant as possible. If it gets even a whiff of fertilizer, it takes off and gets really aggressive. I grow it in full sun, but I've heard it behaves itself a lot better with some shade in the afternoon. Too little sun, and the bloom might be affected.

This message was edited Jun 15, 2006 3:13 PM