Cream-Splashed Leaves and Bold Pink Blooms!
The prettiest Butterfly Bush yet!
Plant Patent #14,370. Cultivar name: 'Monrell'. Butterfly Bushes just seem to keep getting more spectacularly colored, and Strawberry Lemonade® outdoes them all with variegated foliage that keeps this shrub lovely three seasons out of every year! Add to this the luscious bloom trusses stuffed with butterfly-alluring pink blossoms, and you've got the perfect accent planting for any sunny spot! In spring this shrub leafs out with yellow-edged foliage. As the weather warms, the yellow tones mellow to rich cream, but keep their neat outlining of every leaf, adding a formal look to the garden. And all summer long --most heavily in mid- and late season -- this shrub is bedecked with masses of fat 6-inch wands of bright pink, attracting winged visitors and compliments in droves! Unlike many Butterfly Bushes, Strawberry Lemonade is hardy all the way through zone 4 in the north, and is quite tolerant of cold weathers. Of course, heat and humidity also give it no trouble, and once this shrub takes hold in your landscape, you'll find it virtually self-maintaining, happy in any soil. In winter in most climates it dies back to the ground, or you can prune it to ground level in early spring for fresh new growth. Easy and nearly carefree! Strawberry Lemonade is the ideal focal point for a sunny border or bed, and makes a fine companion to all your summer-blooming perennials. Bellflower, Poppy, Mullein, and more all look splendid around this shrub, and spring-blooming bulbs make a fine foreground planting to begin the color show just a bit earlier! Fast-growing and eager to bloom, Strawberry Lemonade reaches its mature size of 6 feet high and wide within 5 years, and will bloom heavily even the first year you plant it out. Space plants about 5 feet apart for a solid "wall" of brilliant color. Zones 4-9.
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