Buttonbush has the most adorable blooms -- they look like pincushions, and they're fragrant and perfectly round. 
 
     Buttonbush provides essential food for hummingbirds, bees, butterflies and other pollinators, and its reddish winter nutlets provide nourishment for waterfowl and shore birds.
 
     Buttonbush is a large shrub, taller than wide.  It adapts to drier soils but is happiest incorporated into a rain garden, along a pond or stream bank or as part of a wetland restoration project.
 
     1st photo: Steve Dubik, Montgomery College