Late-flowering Boneset, Late-flowering Thoroughwort, Late Boneset

It is a handsome native wildflower that commonly grows in moist or wet meadows or woodland edges from south Texas up into Nebraska over i...Read Morento central Wisconsin to Massachusetts down to south Florida. It is cold hardy to USDA Zone 4. It grows well in the common pH range of 6.0 to 7.5, but not sure how much more. It has pale white flower clusters blooming in September and October that are fragrant, sort of lilac-like in scent. It has long-stalked lanceolate leaves. It is a good pollinator plant. It is offered by some native plant nurseries.

The Pollinator Party Palace. In the fall of 2013 a plant volunteered in my front bed that I thought was a Veronica. So I transplanted i...Read Moret to an appropriate place on my border. After it emerged and grew in the spring of 2014, I soon recognized that it was not a veronica. I was going to pull it, but decided to wait and took a branch to a plant identification expert at The University of Cincinnati, fully expecting him to tell me it was a noxious weed. Instead he told me it was Eupatorium serotinum, a native plant. He said it would have a pretty white bloom in the late fall and that it would attract pollinators. He urged me to keep it, so I gave it a home in my garden. I discovered its odd common name, Late Boneset. In Late August it bloomed. The bloom is attractive, but not spectacular. What makes this plant notable is the way it attracts pollinators. I call my Eupatorium serotinum the pollinator party palace. So many pollinators come that the plant literally vibrates with the activity of small bees, beetles, wasps, and small butterflies.