Sweet Pepperbush Comes Full Circle

Here's Sweet Pepperbush, Clethra alnifolia, coming around its annual cycle.

From Nature's Garden:

"Like many another neglected native plant, the beautiful sweet pepperbush improves under cultivation ; and when the departed lilacs, syringa, snowball, and blossoming almond, found with almost monotonous frequency in every American garden, leave a blank in the shrubbery at midsummer, these fleecy white spikes should exhale their spicy breath about our homes. But wild flowers, like a prophet, may remain long without honor in their own country."

From The American Bee Journal:

"The sweet pepper grows wild here in the greatest abundance in the swamps, and wet places, and I never knew it to fail to bloom from any cause whatever. Dry seasons do not affect it, because its home is generally in wet places; and again no cold appears ever to harm it. The honey is about white, thick and of fine flavor."

(Bee photo on C. alnifolia from August; all others this weekend.)

Blanchan, Neltje. Nature's Garden. 230-1. New York, 1900. Web. Google Book Search. 25 Oct 2009.

Parsons, A. The American Bee Journal. Volume 15. 58. Chicag0, January 1879. Web. Google Book Search. 25 Oct 2009.



To my dear Feedburner email subscribers: Yesterday the embedded Google map did not present well within the email. A better view can be had on the blog's post for yesterday.