Growing Buttonbush: A Great Native Shrub for Wet Areas in the Garden

This all-star native plant provides an attractive form, blooms, and foliage in full sun to partial shade and soggy soil

A shrub that I continue to raise and utilize in the Midwest is our aboriginal buttonbush ( Cephalanthusoccidentalisand cvs . , Zones 4–10 ) . Native to a wide range of the eastern andmidwesternUnited States , this shrub is finally receiving the mainstream attention and use that it deserves .

I first realise this industrial plant as a child in the wetlands of upstate New York where my grandparents lived . The globular white efflorescence chief with a pincushion - like appearance were unforgettable . They were thriving in a wet location that frequently had standing water . That ’s exactly what buttonbush ( also shout push willow tree , honey bush , and beloved egg ) prefers , and it is frequently found along cockeyed edges and is let in in wetland project andrain garden .

All About Growing Native Buttonbush

Buttonbush flowers and foliage

The interesting flowers that I recall from my youth appear in June and really are quite fetching in summer . They emerge livid or the lightest of garden pink and hold their globular contour as they form into laborious fruiting structures of late in summer . The flowers are also slightlyfragrantand attract a across-the-board range of wildlife , includingpollinatorssuch as bees and many coinage of butterflies . The large , glossy foliage is rarely affected by insects or disease . In fall , the leaves passage to shade of jaundiced and orangish .

Buttonbush cultivars come in big and small packages

This shrub typically produce 8 to 12 infantry tall and nearly as wide of the mark , although magnanimous specimen are not uncommon . The breeding and selection for more summary forms continue in sincere . There are many great varieties on the grocery right now .

Buttonbush growing needs and care

This distant member of the coffee bean family ( Rubiaceae ) is best positioned in full sun topartial shade , but it does not exhibitdrought tolerance . It is , however , cervid resistantand quite kind of urban befoulment . Buttonbush is a tough , long-lived plant that offer form , function , wildlife value , and potential in damp positioning . It ’s also beautiful throughout the growing season .

— Mark Dwyer is the garden handler for the Edgerton Hospital Healing Garden in Edgerton , Wisconsin , and he operate Landscape Prescriptions by MD .

Photos : Mark Dwyer

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