Eupatoriums: a perennial loved by pollinators with long-lasting flowers
This often overlooked perennial has long-lasting flowers that attract pollinators, and they now come in more colours and forms than ever, says Graham Clarke
IT’S only in the past decade or so that I have come to value – and actually adore – the eupatorium. It’s not a plant that gets much coverage in the press, and you tend not to see it in many gardens – but it is growing in popularity. And thanks to the breeding work that has been carried out in recent years, eupatoriums now offer greater variety in colour, height and form than ever before.
Perennial plants with an architectural presence, they feature long-lasting, broad, purple-to-white flower heads. Although these can emerge from late spring, the main show starts later – around now, in fact. The wispy blooms are held on tall stems, and act as a beacon to butterflies, bees, hoverflies and even ladybirds – important if you prefer not to use chemicals to tackle aphids. When it’s in flower Eupatorium
cannabinum ‘Album’ seems to have more butterflies on it than anything else in the garden.
Tall and imposing
Arguably the most impressive forms are the North American species. Commonly known as Joe Pye weeds – after, it’s believed, an Algonquin Indian (one of Canada’s First Nation peoples) who used eupatorium to treat patients with typhus – they can grow taller than 6ft (1.8m) in a season, and make imposing perennials for the back of a border.
The tallest one I’ve seen has to be white-flowered E. fistulosum ‘Massive White’, which was nearer to 10ft (3m). However, breeders have worked hard to develop shorter cultivars that will work well in smaller gardens.
Then there’s the British native hemp agrimony (E. cannabinum). The ‘hemp’ part comes from the resemblance of its leaves to those of marijuana, rather than any narcotic content. The flowers are a dusky purple, and despite being a smaller species, it makes itself noticed by self-sowing readily! If you want to avoid this, grow ‘Flore Pleno’, which has longlasting, bright pink bracts; it does not produce true flowers and therefore will not set seed. However, it won’t be visited by pollinators either, a fact that might lessen its appeal for many.
The name game
In recent decades, botanists have intervened (as they so often do) to