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Meadowsweet

Spiraea alba

Meadowsweet carries narrow, steeple-shaped panicles of tiny white flowers from midsummer well into fall, long after most shrubs have finished. It belongs in wet ground — pond edges, ditches, sedge meadows — and is one of the few woody plants that will knit a saturated shoreline together without sulking. Its flowers are shallow and open, which suits short-tongued bees, small wasps and syrphid flies rather than the long-tongued specialists, and the foliage feeds a long list of native caterpillars. Old flower heads dry to a rust brown and stand through winter, so leave them up. An infusion of the leaves tastes much like black tea. Up close it is a modest, twiggy thing, and it works far better massed than as a single specimen.

Family

Rosaceae

Type

shrub

Lifespan

perennial

Height

3–4 ft

Spacing

3–4 ft apart

Light

sun, part shade, shade

Soil moisture

moist, wet

Soil pH

acidic, neutral

Bloom

June, July, August, September

Bloom colors

white

Wildlife value

songbirds, butterflies, larval host

Caterpillar hosts

~89 butterfly & moth species

Landscape uses

border, naturalizing, rain garden

Native states

CT, DE, GA, IA, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, NC, ND, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, SD, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV