Summersweet ‘Compacta’

* Common name: Summersweet ‘Compacta’

Summersweet ‘Compacta’

* Botanical name: Clethra alnifolia ‘Compacta’

* What it is: Also known as ‘Tom’s Compact’ summersweet, this plant is a compact variety of a Pennsylvania native flowering shrub. It produces upright, candle-like, 6-inch-long white flower spires in July and August. Flowers are sweetly fragrant and attractive to bees and butterflies. Fall foliage is yellow.

* Size: 3 feet tall, 3 to 3½ feet wide.

* Where to use: Summersweet does best in damp soil and afternoon shade, but it’ll also grow well in sun if the soil is damp. That makes it an ideal choice for a native-plant rain garden or along a stream bank or water garden. This one is compact and long-blooming enough to serve as a house-foundation shrub, especially along eastern and northern sides.

* Care: If needed for size control, cut back by up to one-half at end of winter. Will colonize slowly by spreading roots, but if you don’t want it to spread, shovel out the roots any time. Fertilize with a scattering of acidifying granular organic fertilizer early each spring. Soak weekly in a drought.

* Great partner: Sweetbox is a good evergreen underplanting that flowers in spring. Leadwort, foamflowers and pink lamium are good part-shade perennial groundcover partners.