Plant sales are closed for the season. Thank you to all of our wonderful customers for making this a successful and fulfilling year! We are now offering garden design services. Book a consultation now and start planning your spring pollinator garden! We are excited to help you create your beautiful garden! Come back January 1st to see our new inventory for 2025.



Sweet Pepperbush - Clethra alnifolia

Regular price $29.00

Shipping calculated at checkout.

Phonetic: KLETH-rah al-nih-FOH-lee-ah

Shrubs larger than 1 gallon can not be shipped.

Most shrubs will not be ready before the first week of June when they are fully leafed out.

1 and 2 Gallon Pot 

Sweet Pepperbush, also called Summersweet, is easily grown in average, medium to wet soils in full sun to part shade. Prefers part shade and consistently moist, acidic, sandy soils. Soils should not be allowed to dry out. Promptly remove root suckers unless naturalized look is desired. It is noted for producing a mid to late summer bloom of sweetly fragrant white flowers. Flowers are very attractive to butterflies and bees. One interesting visitor to the late-blooming Clethra is the organ pipe mud dauber wasp (Trypoxylon politum). A nonaggressive iridescent black wasp that hunts spiders and sips nectar—what’s not to love?

  • Hardiness Zone:  3-9
  • Native Northeast Region: USDA Database
  • Sun Exposure:  Full sun to partial shade
  • Flower Color: White 
  • Bloom Time: July, August, Sept
  • Soil Type: Medium to Wet
  • Mature Plant Size: 3-8' Height, 4-8' Width
  • Plant Spacing: 5'
  • Attracts:  Bees, Hummingbirds, Butterflies, Birds
  • Advantages:  Fragrant, Late blooming, Salt tolerance
  • Landscape Uses:  Screen, Hedge, Specimen, Rain Garden
  • Companion Plants:  Great St. John's Wort, Joe Pye Weeds, Dense Blazing Star
  • Deer Resistant