Recently a customer, and friend, asked me about a wonderful perennial they have seen here and there around town.  She gave me a short list of locations and on my way home I drove by a couple to see what this beautiful, dense, dark leaved with purple stems and mauve-purple flowers plant was.  I found myself before a beautiful clump of Joe Pye Weed.  But not just any Joe Pye Weed!  The plant I was looking at was not 5-6′ tall and taking over the garden, it was a manageable size, about 2½’ tall, and was mixed into the perennial and shrub border in lovely, well behaved clumps.  After doing a little more research it became obvious that these were non other than than the 2012 introduction, Eupatorium ‘Baby Joe’.  It looks very much like a compact version of Eupatorium ‘Purpurea’ and it attracts just as much winged wildlife as ‘Purpurea’ would!

Here’s the dirt on ‘Baby Joe’ Joe Pye Weed:

‘Baby Joe’ will grow to be 2-3′ tall and 1-2′ wide.  They are deer resistant. Plant Eupatorium in fertile soil and water it regularly especially in high heat and/or drought conditions.  They lend themselves nicely to sunny woodland borders, raingardens and other mixed plantings.  Full sun to part shade is fine but full sun will give you fuller plants with more prolific blooms.  They will bloom from midsummer to early fall before going to seed.  Leave the seed heads on for winter, as they are very attractive.