Luckily, many garden centers across the state have container-grown plants ready for our purchase. In addition to asclepias tuberosa, there is a gorgeous species with red petals and yellow hoods known as asclepias curassavica. It is native to South America but has found itself at home in much of the South. The asclepias lanceolata is also a showy perennial with orange-red flowers and at home in moist soils like ditches or marshy areas. Once you start growing the butterfly weed, you will never want to be without them.
Butterfly weed produces flowers for months and is best when grouped together in a clump.
They are always showy, never gaudy. Joe Pye weed is the other so erroneously named a weed. This gorgeous perennial is known in older wildflower books as Eupatorium fistulosum. Sweet Joe Pye weed is identified as Eupatorium purpureum. The Sweet Joe Pye designation comes from a vanilla fragrance when it is bruised or slightly injured.