New Jersey Tea is one of the most beautiful of the native shrubs with fragrant and white blooms all summer long, a time when hardly anyone else is flowering.
A pollinator favorite, New Jersey Tea is host to the Spring Azure, Summer Azure, Early Hairstreak and Mottled Duskywing caterpillars. Butterflies drink the nectar. It also attracts hummingbirds and songbirds and is of special value to native bees.
Even after blooming, New Jersey Tea makes an attractive shrub with its full, fine branching and young yellow twigs that stand out against the snow. Spaced 2 to 3 feet apart, this shrub also makes for a beautiful, low-growing hedge.
New Jersey Tea is native to open woods, woodland edges and meadows and perfers a well-drained site. It has a deep taproot and withstands drought once established. It responds well to occasional hard pruning in winter.
Fun fact: Native Americans used New Jersey Tea as a tea to treat respiratory infections.
Photos: Creative Commons. 1st Photo: Andrey Zharkikh
New Jersey Tea
- Latin: Ceanothus americanus
- Pollinator value: Very High.
- Current height: 12 inches
- Mature height: 2-3 feet high and wide
- Light: Full sun to part shade
- Soil: Medium-dry, well drained; tolerates drought once established
- Blooms: White, honey-scented summer
- Leaves: Deciduous, dark green, yellow fall
- Landscape use: Excellent in a butterfly garden; also as a specimen, hedge, ground cover for dry rocky slopes.
- Resistance: Deer, black walnut, drought
- More information and native range here