Georgia Wildlife Federation

Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Guide to Native Plants of Georgia for Wildlife < Spiraea tomentosa

Steeplebush is a star attraction for any butterfly garden. In mid-summer, its fluffy plumes of small pink or purple rose-like flowers burst into bloom. Butterflies, bees, and moths flock to the flowers in the heat of summer to sip the large amounts of nectar the plant produces. It makes a great replacement for nonnative Azaleas and Butterfly Bush. The foliage is a bit like those of mints in appearance, but the flowers are many times more amazing.

Steeplebush also has medicinal properties. Algonkian tribes like the Mohegan and Ojibwe employed an infusion of the leaves, flowers, and stems as a medicinal tea, useful for treating dysentery, pregnancy sickness, and easing childbirth.

Good companion plants include Flowering Dogwood, Beebalms, Cardinal Flower, Indigo Bush, Blue Star, Cutleaf Coneflower, and Spiderwort, and ornamental grasses like Pink Muhly.

Description: Mound-shaped, deciduous, woody perennial shrub forming a thicket of erect, slender, unbranched stems. Bark is orange to reddish brown and exfoliates. Leaves are elliptical to egg-shaped, coarsely toothed, 1-3” long, 1-1 ½” wide, and yellow in fall. Flowering occurs in mid-summer in dense, erect, steeple-shaped plumes. Flowers are pink, rose, or purple and terminate the stems. Fruits are small, dry, and brown.

Size: 3-6 feet tall and 3-6 feet wide

Habit: Mound-shaped, deciduous, woody perennial shrub forming a thicket of erect, slender, unbranched stems

Light: Requires full sun for best appearance and flowering

Planting and Care: Steeplebush prefers moist soil, and optimal sites should be near water. If not sited near water, amend the backfill with substantial organic matter such as rotted leaves or compost. Also, mulch with 2-4” pine straw, leaves, or wood chips to maintain moisture. Supplemental irrigation of at least 1” water per week during dry times such as summer may be necessary to grow Steeplebush in dry locations. It is much more tolerant of drought than other water-margin plants. It is hardy from USDA Zones 4-8.

Ornamental Value: Assets include its compact and mounding habit, its attractiveness to butterflies and moths, and its large plumes of small flowers.

Landscape Use: Use Steeplebush as a specimen or in groupings at the margins of bogs, ponds, streams, creeks, lakes, or water gardens.

Wildlife Benefits: Foliar host for the Spring Azure butterfly. The flowers provide bees, butterflies, and moths with copious amounts of nectar in mid-summer.

Native Habitat: Native to eastern North America with isolated populations in the Pacific Northwest. It ranges from Georgia north to Quebec, west to Ontario, southwest to Kansas, and southeast to Louisiana. Populations also exist in Oregon and Washington. Favored habitats include wet prairies and meadows, marshes, and roadsides.

Propagation: Seed (untreated) or softwood cuttings (requiring no hormone treatment)