I live in zone 5 and am looking for a reliable, easy to grow and hardy perennial that will grow 3-6 feet tall and fill in an area with clay soil that gets about 5-6 hours of afternoon sun every day of the summer. I'm thinking about Joe-Pye weed. Any comments?

Will you be upset when it dies to the ground in fall? If not, I don't see a problem with planting Joe Pye weed. It pretty.

Thank you. No, I do not have a problem with it dying at the end of the season as long as it will reliably come back the following year.

If it finds it's happy spot, you will not have any problem with it coming back. Likes wet soil, but can tolerate drought once established, deer resistant.

Thank you.

Baptisa is another good one. Spring bloomer but fills in nicely. I have the species purple one and it gets about 4 feet tall for me. If it gets too big I just trim it back for the season so the plants around it can breathe.

Thank you Amanda. I'll see which one my local nursery is carrying in the spring and make a decision then.

I have baptisia in my yard and joe pye weed in a Master Gardener project. Both wonderful natives. Tough as can be and both withstand drought. Love both of them! Good choices.

Thank you for the information.

Don't see a lot of Cyrils, my grandfather's name👍🏼😀

Correct. Even though the Catholic Church recognizes three Saint Cyrils we are very rare. Our name is much more common in eastern Europe where the common variant is Kirill. One is also credited with having created the Russian or Cyrillic Alphabet.

Grandfather is a Brit

Baptisia has seeds that will propagate lots of places you may not want to have it grow. The purple is dramatic and beautiful.

While that may be true, the seed pods are very large, and the seeds also. Hard not to see them if they drop to the dirt.

Have had no problem with species baptisia or the cultivar Cherries Jubilee. Have them hemmed in by other tough competitors, like New England asters. Have not seen them seed but do cut them back to ground level, along with the pods, by the end of the growing season.

Think there's numbers of plants, with various degrees of relationship, that can be called Joe-Pye weed. Have had two white snake root ''Chocolate' plants, going for years, with no problems. Picture was from last weekend.

Thank all of you for your replies.

Joe Pye Weed is loved by the butterflies and bees here in Brewer, Maine! It is a low to no maintenance plant. Mine is planted in mostly clay and sits in water several weeks each in spring and fall and seems to take care of itself. Go for it!

I am not sure how deer resistant Joe-Pye is. Something ate mine several times this year. Lots of deer around my house.


Barbara
Richmond, VA

Just in case you might want something late Summer flowering, Cutleaf Coneflower, Rudbeckia lacineata.

Hi Bob. Thank you for the cutleaf coneflower suggestion. The area I have is only partially sunny and it tends to be very wet in the spring and dry in the summer and fall. Would this still be OK?