Sixteen Candles Summersweet

Sixteen Candles is a compact summersweet selected for its dense habit and abundance of upright white flower spikes. The fragrant blossoms open in midsummer, filling an important seasonal gap for pollinators and attracting bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Yellow fall foliage extends its interest after flowering.

As a selection of native Clethra alnifolia, ‘Sixteen Candles’ is naturally at home in moisture-retentive soils and adapts particularly well to rain gardens, woodland edges, pond margins, and low portions of the landscape. It can also grow successfully in ordinary medium garden soil as long as it does not experience prolonged severe drought. Slowly spreading roots can produce suckers and help the shrub form a broader colony over time.

• Keep newly planted shrubs evenly watered, particularly in hotter sunny locations.
• Prune only as needed in late winter or early spring.
• Remove root suckers if a single compact shrub is preferred over a gradually expanding colony.