Plant Profile- Clethra alnifolia 'Vanilla Spice'

I  thought I would take a break from the Photo-a-Day posts to profile an amazing shrub that I have in my garden. Clethra alnifolia 'Vanilla Spice' is currently filling the air with its fragrance, and it is delightful.  I have it planted in a few spots in my backyard gardens and I can tell you, it likes moist soil. Two of the spots I have it planted in semi-shade and a rather dry area, it is not doing as well as the clump in more sun and a wetter area. 

This shrub is deer resistant, though many of the flower stalks get sampled. Clethra alnifolia is native to swampy woodlands, stream shorelines, wetlands, and can be found from Maine to Florida. The common name is Summersweet, probably for its fragrant blooms. Reading about it on the Missouri Botanical Garden site it says it can tolerate clay soils (which I have) but the soil should not dry out completely. Think I might move the struggling ones to a wetter area in my yard. The light requirements are full sun to part shade. So, more sun and more water areas for those that will get moved in the fall/winter. 

The shrub grows to about 6 feet tall and creates a colony of suckers, making a wide shrub, spreading at will. Given my backyard is more of a woodland garden, I like when a shrub is thriving and spreading. 

When in bloom, these shrubs are covered with pollinators. It makes me happy to see so many pollinators in my garden. 

When I first purchased this shrub, I really wanted C. alnifolia 'Ruby Spice', but only 'Vanilla Spice' was available. Like I said above, the fragrance from the 'Vanilla Spice' fills the backyard. 

A neighbor had some 'Ruby Spice' that they were dividing, and shared some with me. It is not quite open yet, but I can tell you from previous years it isn't nearly as fragrant as 'Vanilla Spice'. As the 'Ruby Spice' bloom opens the pink color fades quite a bit. These 'Ruby Spice' also need to be moved, not nearly enough water for them to flourish. 

Clethra alnifolia 'Ruby Spice'

I wrote about the Clethra alnifolia back in July 2011. While checking my previous post, I see I need to find my photos from the post. Not sure why, but some of my older posts have the photos disappear. I know I thought I was culling excess photos from my Google photos, and inadvertently deleted some that were used for a blog post. As I find posts that are missing photos, I go back through the archives and replace them. 

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