Cephalanthus Sugar Shack® Dwarf Buttonbush

A Proven Winners® ColorChoice® Flowering Shrubs variety, a glorious dwarf selection of the Native American species, Sugar Shack® regales you with ever-changing color and interest. In addition to the knobby button-like red fruits for which it is named, it offers fragrant white blooms in midsummer, rich burgundy fall foliage, and a pleasingly rounded, symmetrical habit. Add to this its willingness to thrive in damp and boggy soils and its appeal to butterflies, and you have an all-around indispensable shrub for sun to partial shade.

The show begins in spring when glossy, bright green new foliage leafs out on this deciduous shrub, which reaches just 3 to 4 feet high and wide. Just half the size of the species, it's a terrific fit in most borders, woodland gardens, and even the foundation.

By midsummer, the Sputnik-shaped white fruit is dotting Sugar Shack very liberally, bringing bees, butterflies, and even hummingbirds in to pay their respects (and pick up some nectar). These luminous white blooms are unlike any other in the garden, quite a show when observed up close. Sweetly fragrant, they add a lot to the garden.

The flowers are followed by hard, roundish, knobby little berries that begin green and ripen to a deep shade of red. Of course birds like them, but you will too—they're quite as showy as the blooms. They'll persist all autumn and may even outlast the deciduous foliage, showing up even better on leafless stems in winter.

In the wild Buttonbush tends to be a bog plant, so it doesn't mind wet soil, standing water, and other moisture-rich conditions. Ordinary moist soil is fine too, but it cannot withstand dryness. Find a poorly-draining spot and transform it with Sugar Shack.