Summersweet Clethra

For a wet shady corner where nothing flowers, summersweet is the native shrub that does. Clethra alnifolia carries upright white bottlebrush spikes in midsummer, well after the spring shrubs have finished, and the fragrance is strong enough to find the plant before you see it. It grows in part shade, reaching a rounded 4 to 8 feet, hardy from Zone 3 through Zone 9, and settles in over two or three seasons.

Bloom runs for several weeks in July and August, the quietest stretch of the shrub year. Bees and butterflies come to it in numbers while it is open, and the spent spikes dry to a russet brown and hold on the plant into winter.

Foliage turns clear yellow in fall and holds late. It leafs out very late in spring, so do not assume winter killed it when everything around it is already green.

Summersweet grows naturally in swamps and along stream edges, so wet ground is a feature rather than a problem, and it is one of the few flowering shrubs that will take standing water. It tolerates salt and shade as well. In dry soil it struggles, so give it a low spot or steady moisture rather than a hot bank. Deer leave it alone.