Adina rubella

A medium to large deciduous shrub closely related to the native buttonbush, Adina rubella wears smaller leaves and bears similar but daintier flowers: round, scented heads of pale pink and white, each bristling with styles into a small Sputnik, carried over a long season from early summer well into fall. The pincushion blooms draw bees and butterflies just as the buttonbushes do, and an open, arching habit gives the shrub a fine-textured grace.

Native to the streamsides and sandy banks of central and southeastern China and South Korea, the Chinese buttonbush takes happily to wet ground and ordinary soil alike, reaching perhaps ten feet in a warm climate. In Chinese and Korean folk medicine the plant has a long use, the leaves and bark prepared for dysentery, diarrhea, skin complaints such as eczema, and toothache, though the shrub reaches Western gardens as an ornamental and a pollinator plant.

A graceful, water-loving shrub for a pond edge, a rain garden, a streambank, or any moist, sunny to part-shaded spot where the long season of fragrant buttons can be enjoyed. Adina rubella tolerates wet feet that defeat many shrubs, pairs naturally with the native buttonbush and other moisture lovers, and can be cut back in late winter to keep the arching frame tidy.