Description

2-5’H x 3’W

Full Sun/partial

Sweet Fern, Comptonia peregrina, is not actually a fern but a low-growing shrub with fern-like leaves that give off a pleasant fragrance when crushed. It can form a colony, so give this plant some room. Sweet Fern grows well in sandy soils, from well-drained dry sites to the edges of marshes. An important larval host plant for a wide variety of moths including the Io moth, and several sphinx moth species, it is also a host plant for the Anise Swallowtail butterfly.

This native shrub is from Elizabeth’s garden.