Fothergilla gardenii ‘Blue Mist’

Fothergilla gardenii is a small deciduous shrub, usually three to four feet tall, and a native of the southeastern coastal plain, where the plant haunts moist, peaty pinelands and bogs. A member of the witch-hazel family, Hamamelidaceae, and a close cousin of the witch-hazels themselves, dwarf fothergilla shares the family gift for honey-scented late-winter and spring bloom on bare or barely-leafed stems.

The flowers are the first delight: showy white bottlebrushes, an inch or two long, made not of petals but of a haze of long cream stamens tipped in yellow anthers, sweetly fragrant, opening in spring before or with the emerging leaves. Because the color comes from the stamens rather than petals, the whole shrub reads as a soft cloud of white, a woodland-edge plant that carries real presence for its modest size.

'Blue Mist' is the reason to seek this particular selection, chosen at the Morris Arboretum in Pennsylvania for the cool, glaucous blue cast of the summer foliage, a rare and welcome color among small shrubs. Honesty compels a note that Woodlanders has always made plainly: 'Blue Mist' does not carry the fiery autumn color of some other fothergillas, trading the blaze of fall for that distinctive blue-green summer dress. The plant is adaptable to most garden soils in sun or light shade, hardy well north of the wild range, and deservedly popular.

Use dwarf fothergilla at the front of a moist, acid border, along a woodland edge, or in a mixed native planting where the blue foliage can cool the greens around the plant and set off darker leaves. The spring bloom feeds early bees, deer tend to pass the shrub by, and the compact frame suits small gardens and foundation beds. Pair with blueberries, itea, native azaleas, and other acid-loving companions in moist, humus-rich ground.