New Jersey Tea
[JUST A FEW LEFT]
Price: $10
Size: 1 gallon pot
Light: Full to Part Sun
Type: Flowering Shrub
Native
Great native shrub!
Photo by Blazing Star Gardens
New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus americanus) features glossy leaves, numerous clusters of bright white flowers and a mounding shape that make this compact shrub a popular garden member. Planted two to three feet apart it forms an attractive low growing hedge, and is an excellent choice for rocky hillsides and slopes, as well. New Jersey Tea requires a well-drained site. The deep tap root makes it very drought tolerant once established. With a slow to moderate growth rate the long-lived plants will mature in 2 to 3 years.
A host plant for Spring Azure and Summer Azure butterflies, New Jersey Tea is also attractive to hummingbirds, which eat the tiny insects that busily pollinate the small flowers. The name New Jersey Tea was coined during the American Revolution because its leaves were used as a substitute for imported tea. (Source: Prairie Nursery)