Clethra tomentosa ‘Woodlander's Sarah’ Allen Bush Summersweet has long been a

Summersweet has long been a shrub gardeners plant by the nose

fringed panicles of pure white

fills the great majority of the spice jars labeled simply cinnamon

A deciduous shrub native to northwestern China

opening slowly from the bottom up and often flushing pink or purple as the flowers age

Clethra tomentosa ‘Woodlander's Sarah’ Allen Bush Summersweet has long been aThe summersweets are among the most fragrant of American shrubs, and the southern woolly summersweet, Clethra tomentosa, carries the whole tribe's gifts: colonies of upright stems in moist, acid ground, and terminal spikes of white flowers that pour a honey and clove perfume across the July garden. Country people knew the plant as Sweet Pepperbush, for the peppercorn seed heads, and the crushed flowers even raise a soft lather once used as a woodland