Buttonbush

Cephalanthus occidentalis is a fun and charming plant that has an equally fun and charming common name – buttonbush. This moisture-loving flowering shrub is easy to grow, tolerant of most everything apart from getting dry, and in return for keeping it moist and happy it will furnish you with the kind of flower that makes children squeak and adults smile fondly. With its long, slightly folded, light green leaves it provides interest even before it bursts into bloom, with the unopened green buds forming solid highly textured globes, and then the fun really happens! Each little head is like a ball of tiny tightly packed flowers that resemble a miniature floral explosion held in a moment of time for all to appreciate; exquisitely delicate pistils erupting from each diminutive flower like fragments of star escaping from a collapsing white sun. They are as wonderful as they sound. The dark seed-heads that follow are an excellent food source for many birds, and fall sees orange and yellows brighten the garden before it falls silent till the next spring.