Love my Joe Pye Weed, sounds as though you have a perfect spot for it.

The only thing I would add would be to consider the scale of the rest of your garden when Joe Pye is happy it can tower over the rest of your bed much like the adolescent in the class picture that grew 18" and 3 shoe sizes in one year. kt

Thanks for the info so far. This spot is in the corner of my wood fence, nothing else is planted there. I want to give it lots of breathing room, I know it's a big plant. Can you tell me how wide it gets at maturity? Thank you : )

Jen

My Joe-Pye clumps (species and 'Gateway') have enlarged to about 3 feet in diameter in the past few years. Height can be controlled by cutting back plants sharply in mid-spring (the species bloomed for me at about 4 feet this year with this treatment). One warning - the species reseeds enthusiastically, although it's not a big problem to remove unwanted seedlings.

Goes great with ornamental grasses and many other things.

I think your spot sounds perfect for Joe Pye Weed. They are fast growing and the flowers receive heavy attention in late summer from the insect population, lots of bees and butterflies. I found the soft purple/mauve/rose color to be very blendable & easy to use. Foliage always stays nice and crisp looking until frost and the stems always stay erect. No staking is necessary. Gateway looks nice with black-eyed susans, pink turtlehead, grasses, and any pink or wine toned early garden mum, such as Clara Curtis.

Beware, however, that in a wet spot the plants may get taller than advertised. My Joe Pye Weed, Eupatorium fistulosum 'Gateway', planted in a moist low spot (in heavy clay) went up & up, to a good 10 ft. tall, not the 4-7 ft often noted on planting tags.

Cutting them back greatly reduced the flowering. Timing the cutback (which I never actually mastered) seemed to have a lot of impact on the flowerheads and the eventual height. Sometimes I had small flowerheads, but plenty of them, sometimes the flowerheads were broken, sometimes not much flowering at all - and all this varied on 3 ft to 8 ft plants with no rhyme or reason that I could see.

I eventually moved them to a drier spot (but still moisture retentive clay) and they now get only 4-5 ft tall and don't have to be cut back. On a restricted water diet, each plant is currently about 2 ft wide, but will probably reach the 3 ft width Eric mentioned.

In the 10 years I have had Gateway, I have only had one seedling pop up. That may be a result of my heavy soil, crowded conditions and mulch. BTW, it showed itself last year in the middle of a yellow and blue-purple bed & it's still there this year - meant to move it, but kind of like it there at that time of year :~))

I really loved the butterflies that hung around it, but realized it was starting to take over, and my garden isnt that big. So I took it out, but in a place where it can grow and has alot of room would be ideal. Its rather a sralky plant too, good luck with it.