Ruby Spice Summersweet

Sweet, stunning, and alive with pollinators — Clethra 'Ruby Spice' is one of the most exciting native shrubs you can grow. This exceptional summersweet selection lights up the mid to late summer landscape with dense, upright spikes of deep rose-pink to coral-pink flowers at precisely the time of year when most flowering shrubs have long finished their show. And the fragrance — rich, spicy, and intoxicatingly sweet — drifts through the garden on warm summer evenings in a way that stops you in your tracks and draws you closer every single time.

What makes 'Ruby Spice' truly remarkable is the depth and warmth of its flower color — a significant improvement over the pale pink and white tones of older clethra varieties, with rich rosy-pink blooms that hold their color beautifully without fading to white as many pink clethras tend to do. It is a native shrub of exceptional garden value, thriving in the moist, shaded, and difficult spots where other flowering shrubs struggle, and delivering wildlife benefits that few ornamentals can rival. Butterflies and bees are drawn to the blooms in extraordinary numbers, and the golden to orange fall foliage adds a brilliant final flourish before the season ends.

Highlights:

• Deep rose-pink to coral-pink flower spikes with exceptional color that holds without fading
• Intensely sweet, spicy fragrance perfumes the garden through mid to late summer
• Blooms mid to late summer — a vital source of color and nectar when little else is flowering
• Brilliant golden to orange fall foliage extends seasonal interest well into autumn
• Native to eastern North America — outstanding ecological and wildlife value
• An extraordinary magnet for butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds
• Thrives in moist, shaded, and challenging spots where other shrubs fail
• Tolerates wet soils, clay, and heavy shade better than most flowering shrubs
• Deer resistant
• Naturalizes beautifully in woodland gardens, rain gardens, and shaded borders