White meadowsweet
Spiraea alba · Rosaceae
Upright, yellowish-brown stems end in fuzzy cones of small white flowers through summer. A native of wet meadows and shores.
- Size
- 4 ft tall, 3½ ft wide
- Zones
- 3 to 7
- Light
- Full sun to part sun
- Flowers
- Late June to late August
- Pets
- No toxicity recorded
- Job in a bed
- Drift
A bed built around white meadowsweet
The planner designed this bed around white meadowsweet when this page was made: a 12 × 6 ft (3.7 × 1.8 m) English border in zone 6, full sun. It chose the other plants from the 251 that suit those conditions and its wet soil, and says below why white meadowsweet stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 White meadowsweet × 1, white
- 2 Stemless gentian × 21, blue
- 3 Mouse-ear coreopsis 'Nana' × 13, yellow
- 4 New York aster × 4, purple
- 5 Palm sedge × 3, green leaves
- 6 Double snowdrop × 10, white
- 7 Snowdrop × 12, white
Why this plant
- The only plumes. The others are trumpets, daisies and bells. Shape reads at a distance, where colours blur.
- Part of the bed's structure. Shrubs and grasses keep their shape when the perennials die down. So does palm sedge.
Why here
- Anchors a back corner. At 4 ft it is the tallest plant here, and the tallest close the ends of the bed, where they stand in front of nothing.
- A step in the back row. Next to New York aster (3 ft): no two neighbours there are the same height, so the back steps up and down like a skyline.
- One plant, alone. A shrub is seen as an object, and needs clear ground around it.
Why now
- In flower for 9 weeks. From late June to late August.
- Fills a gap. For 9 of those weeks nothing else on the plan is in flower.
Planned as an English border: 6 of the 6 groups (100%) are drifts, longer along the bed than they are deep. Neither end outweighs the other: the visual weight is split 51 to 49, left to right. White runs through the planting: 3 of the 6 kinds grown for their flowers have it.
The planner's own design check: 13 Excellent, 3 Good, 1 Satisfactory. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where white meadowsweet goes in a border
At 4 ft it belongs at the back of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is moderately tall (3 to 4 ft).
Its job: drift. Planted in a small group of three or five, and repeated further along in the other number.
A native spirea that flowers for two months and draws great numbers of bees, wasps and butterflies. It grows in wet soil where Japanese spireas would be a risk.
- Rain gardens and wet meadows
- Native pollinator planting
- Massing beside water
What to plant with white meadowsweet
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- Swamp milkweed: in flower together for six weeks, from early July.
- Blue flag iris: flowers first, late May to late June, so the spot is never empty; happy in the same wet soil.
- Joe Pye weed 'Little Joe': in flower together for five weeks, from late July; bold leaves against its medium ones.
Questions about white meadowsweet
Does white meadowsweet need sun or shade?
White meadowsweet grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day) and part sun (4 to 6 hours of sun, including some afternoon sun).
It wants moist to wet soil, of average fertility, and a good soak in dry spells. It copes with soil that stays wet.
What zones does white meadowsweet grow in?
USDA zones 3 to 7. It is hardy to zone 3, which means it survives winter nights down to about −30 °F (−34 °C).
Above zone 7 it struggles: the zones measure winter cold, but a plant's top zone usually means the summers are too hot or the winters too mild for it to rest.
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
When does white meadowsweet flower in my zone?
In zone 5 it flowers late June to late August. As a summer flower it moves about half a week for every zone: earlier where it is warmer.
| Zone 3 | Early July to late August |
|---|---|
| Zone 4 | Early July to late August |
| Zone 5 | Late June to late August |
| Zone 6 | Late June to late August |
| Zone 7 | Late June to mid August |
Worked out from Hopkins' bioclimatic law: spring arrives about four days later for each degree of latitude north, and one zone is roughly two degrees. A warm spring or a cold one moves any garden two weeks either way.
How far apart should white meadowsweet be planted?
3 ft (90 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 3½ ft (100 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 4 ft (120 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many white meadowsweet plants do I need?
At 3 ft apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 1 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 4 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 4 to fill a 4 × 8 ft bed on its own
In a mixed border, plant it as a group of three or five, with a second group further along in the other number.
In the bed above, the planner used one in one group.
Is white meadowsweet poisonous to dogs and cats?
No toxicity is recorded for dogs, cats, horses or people, according to NC State Extension.
"Not toxic" is not "edible": a pet that eats a lot of any plant can be sick.
Do deer eat white meadowsweet?
Mostly not. NC State lists it as resistant to deer. No plant is proof against a hungry deer in a hard winter, but this one is low on the menu.
What flowers after white meadowsweet?
White meadowsweet is over by late August. These start as it finishes and carry the same spot on, so it never goes flat:
- Japanese anemone: from mid August to early October, 3 ft tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Garden chrysanthemum: from mid September to late October, 24 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Sedum 'Autumn Joy': from mid August to mid October, 24 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
What does white meadowsweet look like in winter?
White meadowsweet drops its leaves and stands as bare branches. That is when to see its shape, and to prune it if it needs pruning.
Is white meadowsweet good for bees and butterflies?
White meadowsweet is visited by bees, butterflies, moths, beneficial insects and songbirds.
It is a host plant: the caterpillars of spring azure feed on its leaves. A butterfly can only lay its eggs on its host plants, so these do more for it than any nectar flower.
It is native to the United States.
More Spiraea
- Birchleaf spirea 'Tor' Spiraea betulifolia 'Tor'
- Bridal wreath spirea Spiraea x vanhouttei
- Japanese spirea 'Goldflame' Spiraea japonica 'Goldflame'
- Japanese spirea 'Little Princess' Spiraea japonica 'Little Princess'
- Japanese spirea 'Magic Carpet' Spiraea japonica 'Magic Carpet'
- Snowmound spirea Spiraea nipponica 'Snowmound'
- Spirea 'Grefsheim' Spiraea x cinerea 'Grefsheim'
- Spirea 'Ogon' Spiraea thunbergii 'Ogon'
In these guides
- Plants for wet soil and rain gardens
- Pet-safe plants for a sunny border
- Plants for butterflies
- Plants for bees
- Plants that feed garden birds
- Shrubs under 4 feet for small gardens
- Plants for a white garden
- Host plants for the spring azure
Every fact on record
- Type
- Shrub
- Size
- 4 ft (120 cm) tall, 3½ ft (100 cm) wide
- Plant
- 3 ft (90 cm) apart
- Height class
- Moderately tall (3 to 4 ft)
- Place in the bed
- Back
- Flowers
- Late June to late August; feathery plumes; white
- Leaves
- Medium texture, deciduous; green
- Shape
- Upright, spreading
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 3 to 7
- Light
- Full sun, part sun
- Soil
- Average, moist to wet
- Water
- Moderate
- Feeding
- None needed
- Family
- Rosaceae
- Comes from
- Eastern and midwestern North America
- Attracts
- Bees, butterflies, moths, beneficial insects, songbirds
- Host plant for
- Spring azure
- Stands up to
- Deer, wet soil
Checked against NC State Extension and VASCAN (plants of Canada). Flowering times are for zone 5: later in colder zones, earlier in warmer ones. Toxicity and spread information is a general gardening guide, not veterinary or medical advice, and invasive status varies by region. If a person or pet eats a plant, contact poison control or a vet. Check your local invasive species list before planting anything with a spread warning.