Sugar Shack answers your heart’s back-to-nature call for bees, birds and butterflies

This year with all of its challenges, many gardeners have experienced a ‘Call of the Wild’ type moment. It's not a call to plant a jungle or a xeriscape, but to plant with an eye toward the environment and nature. If you find yourself in this category then I would like to give a shout out to Sugar Shack. With the country under a big chill, now is a great time to plan.

Sugar Shack is a compact or behaved form of the native buttonbush. It is known botanically as Cephalanthus occidentalis and is native to all of the lower 48, save 11 states. In other words, it is easier to name the 11 states where it is not found. It is also native to much of Canada.

The buttonbush is so incredibly designed and beautiful in bloom that people are always sending it to me to identify. There is something special when natives catch the eye and inquiring minds want to know, “Can I grow it at my house?” The answer for the most part, is always, “Yes, yes do it.”

Well you know how it is finding natives: You need a cross between Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones. Sugar Shack will change that, thanks to Proven Winners. Go to their website to help you source plants. In fact, there are other incredible natives I’ll be telling you about over the coming months.

So, Sugar Shack offers you the opportunity to grow this plant in a designed landscape size that will reach 48-inches tall and as wide. You don’t have to incorporate a 20- foot monolithic specimen. Best of all you don’t have to have perfect soil.

Buttonbush can actually grow in water and in boggy areas or soils that stay wet. Every week I remind you in this column this plant or that must have good drainage, especially to survive the winter. Sugar Shack is deciduous and very cold hardy, recommended for zones 4-10.

At the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens, we had a problem area that always stayed wet next to the new Andrews Visitor & Education Center. This area became an asset as visitors would walk an elevated ramp right next to the blooms of about 4 buttonbushes.

Once you grow it you will see why it fulfills your dreams and desires for a back to nature environment. The buttonbush will bring in bees and butterflies. I could stop there and we could do the happy dance. According to Texas A&M there are 28 species of birds that will eat the seeds. Can I get a holy wow?

Now let me qualify not all 28 species are songbirds. Illinois Wildflowers list Wood Duck, Northern Pintail, Mallard, Teals and Greater Prairie Chicken to name a few. Can you believe as the seeds float on the water they are eaten by waterfowl? Obviously, you don’t have to have a lake or pond to grow Sugar Shack but if you do, you have a rare opportunity.

As you might expect with the native DNA, the disease pressures are low and the fragrant blooms are produced most of the summer. Those looking for additional plants for honeybees will also find the buttonbush to be highly rated.

I challenge you to look at a bloom through binoculars or a telephoto lens and see if you aren’t totally mesmerized. You’ll agree it is awesome when a native shrub produces fragrant exotic blossoms and yet feeds bees, birds and butterflies too. That makes it a winner in my book. Follow me on Facebook @NormanWinterThe-GardenGuy for more photos and garden inspiration.