Plant Guide

Other Names:  Hybrid Meadowsweet

Description:

A unique selection with an upright habit; candyfloss-pink, feathery plumes held above attractive, lobed leaves, heavily veined with crimson; great for moist areas of the garden or waterside planting; will adapt to containers

Ornamental Features

Red Umbrellas Meadowsweet features delicate panicles of shell pink flowers at the ends of the stems from early to mid summer. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its attractive serrated lobed compound leaves remain forest green in color with distinctive crimson veins throughout the season.

Landscape Attributes

Red Umbrellas Meadowsweet is an herbaceous perennial with a mounded form. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and is best cleaned up in early spring before it resumes active growth for the season. Deer don't particularly care for this plant and will usually leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Red Umbrellas Meadowsweet is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting
• Bog Gardens

Planting & Growing

Red Umbrellas Meadowsweet will grow to be about 24 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 24 inches. Its foliage tends to remain dense right to the ground, not requiring facer plants in front. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years. As an herbaceous perennial, this plant will usually die back to the crown each winter, and will regrow from the base each spring. Be careful not to disturb the crown in late winter when it may not be readily seen!

This plant does best in full sun to partial shade. It is quite adaptable, prefering to grow in average to wet conditions, and will even tolerate some standing water. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone over the growing season to conserve soil moisture. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid. It can be propagated by division; however, as a cultivated variety, be aware that it may be subject to certain restrictions or prohibitions on propagation.

Red Umbrellas Meadowsweet is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. It can be used either as 'filler' or as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, depending on the height and form of the other plants used in the container planting. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.