Tall boneset earns its specific name: on good soil it will reach six feet, carrying a broad platform of small white flowers above its lance-shaped foliage from late summer well into fall. Native to fields, prairies, and open limestone woodlands across much of the eastern and central United States, it thrives in the kind of lean, well-drained ground that richer garden soils can never simulate. This is a plant for the edges and the naturalized patches, not the border.

Grow it in full sun to partial shade and deadhead spent blooms if reseeding is unwanted; the plant also spreads by rhizomes and can colonize a patch over time. The hollow dead stems are nesting habitat for native bees, so the best practice is to cut them back to 12 to 24 inches and leave them standing until they break down naturally. Powdery mildew and aphids are occasional problems but rarely serious.