Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) is a wonderful native shrub with a unique cluster of flowers in a ball shape. Here's some of what we have online in the Native Plant Database ...

Common buttonbush is a multi-stemmed shrub which grows 6-12 ft. or occasionally taller. Leaves in pairs or in threes, petiolate; blade up to 8 inches long, ovate to narrower, sometimes 1/3 or less as wide as long, with a pointed tip and rounded to tapered base, smooth margins and glossy upper surface, lower surface duller. Glossy, dark-green leaves lack significant fall color. Flowers small, borne in distinctive, dense, spherical clusters (heads) with a fringe of pistils protruded beyond the white corollas. Long-lasting, unusual blossoms are white or pale-pink, one-inch globes. Subsequent rounded masses of nutlets persist through the winter. Trunks are often twisted. Spreading, much-branched shrub or sometimes small tree with many branches (often crooked and leaning), irregular crown, balls of white flowers resembling pincushions, and buttonlike balls of fruit. Buttonbush is a handsome ornamental suited to wet soils and is also a honey plant. Ducks and other water birds and shorebirds consume the seeds.

In a native habitat, buttonbush grows along the edge of ponds and streams where the soil is consistently moist. It is possible to sucessfully grow buttonbush in a home garden without a pond or stream by planting it in a low area that collects water runoff, plant it in a rain garden, install underground drip irrigation and in all cases use mulch to conserve moisture.