Bayscape Blog
Native Plant of the Month for August
By Judy DeFiglio 8/29/10
August can be a difficult time of transition in your garden. Many of the colorful flowers blooming in June and July have withered, especially this year with the extreme heat, and the glorious colors of autumn have yet to arrive. A great choice to fill this gap and add a spark to your landscape is Clethra alnifolia (Sweet Pepperbush), our Native Plant of the Month for August.
Clethra is an easy care shrub that just about anyone can grow no matter where they garden. It grows 4 to 8 feet tall and can take either sun or shade and wet or dry conditions. Clethra has attractive dark green, quilted leaves that turn golden yellow in fall and numerous spikes of fragrant, white flowers that bloom in July and August and last four to six weeks. The flowers are followed by interesting gray seed capsules that remain on the plant into the winter. These pods are the reason that Clethra got its common name, Sweet Pepperbush.
If all this wasn’t enough to get you hooked, the flowers of the Clethra attract butterflies, so this shrub is a good alternative for the overplanted Buddleia (butterfly bush) that is becoming invasive in our area.
Native Plant of the Month for August
By Judy DeFiglio 8/29/10
August can be a difficult time of transition in your garden. Many of the colorful flowers blooming in June and July have withered, especially this year with the extreme heat, and the glorious colors of autumn have yet to arrive. A great choice to fill this gap and add a spark to your landscape is Clethra alnifolia (Sweet Pepperbush), our Native Plant of the Month for August.
Clethra is an easy care shrub that just about anyone can grow no matter where they garden. It grows 4 to 8 feet tall and can take either sun or shade and wet or dry conditions. Clethra has attractive dark green, quilted leaves that turn golden yellow in fall and numerous spikes of fragrant, white flowers that bloom in July and August and last four to six weeks. The flowers are followed by interesting gray seed capsules that remain on the plant into the winter. These pods are the reason that Clethra got its common name, Sweet Pepperbush.
If all this wasn’t enough to get you hooked, the flowers of the Clethra attract butterflies, so this shrub is a good alternative for the overplanted Buddleia (butterfly bush) that is becoming invasive in our area.
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