Plant: Sixteen Candles - Clethra
Clethra · Clethra alnifolia 'Sixteen Candles'
Size: 3 gal
Light
Bloom
Mature size
More about this plant
A compact, quite floriferous dwarf selection of the native summersweet, carrying fragrant white flowers in dense narrow cylindrical spikes through July and early August above glossy dark green leaves that turn gold and brown in fall. Brown capsules ripen in autumn and persist through winter for birds. It grows in morning sun or dappled shade on moist, acid, organic soil, tolerates wet ground, salt and heavy shade, resists deer, and draws bees, butterflies and hummingbirds in a rain garden, woodland edge or border.
- Part Shade
- Grows to 8 ft tall and 6 ft wide
- Blooms in summer
- Hardy in USDA zones 3-9
- Deciduous foliage
- Native plant
Plant description
A compact, quite floriferous dwarf selection of the native summersweet, carrying fragrant white flowers in dense narrow cylindrical spikes through July and early August above glossy dark green leaves that turn gold and brown in fall. Brown capsules ripen in autumn and persist through winter for birds. It grows in morning sun or dappled shade on moist, acid, organic soil, tolerates wet ground, salt and heavy shade, resists deer, and draws bees, butterflies and hummingbirds in a rain garden, woodland edge or border.
- Flowers
- White fragrant flowers appear in dense narrow cylindrical spikes on a compact, quite floriferous dwarf selection.
- Fruit
- Brown capsules ripen in fall and persist through winter, attracting birds.
- Light
- Morning Sun, Dappled/Filtered Light
- Native range
- Eastern North America, from Maine south to Florida and west to Texas
