Clethra alnifolia 'SEPTEMBER BEAUTY' summer sweet, sweet pepper bush

September Beauty is a late flowering variety of summer sweet (sweet pepper bush). This deciduous shrub has been popular for quite a few decades and its new varieties attract more and more attention. No wonder – imagine a profusely flowering shrub like this in late August and early September when most other plants are finishing their blooming period. Flowers are small, white, and sweetly fragrant, and composed in erect racemes.

Oval leaves are deciduous, mid-green, 3-6 cm long, finely serrated. For dense foliage it does not like being shaded by other, smaller companion plants very near. September Beauty is a compact variety, yet we suggest pruning it lightly every spring to achieve a densely branched, well-behaving shrub.

Grow it in acid, fertile, humus-rich, moist but well-drained soil in full sun or partial shade. It tolerates wet and heavy clay soil but hates drought. Fully hardy to about -34°C or more (USDA zone 4).

Last update 18-03-2013