Photo: Jason Hollinger, CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mountain Sweetbells

Eubotrys recurva

Also called red-twig doghobble, recurved doghobble, Leucothoe recurva, Andromeda recurva.

Arching sprays of white bells on bare red twigs in spring and red leaves in fall, on a deciduous mountain shrub of the southern Appalachians.

RareShowy flowersFall colorWildlife value

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 3–12 ft
USDA zones: 5–9
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Part, Shade
Soil moisture: Average
Grows wild in: The Appalachians, rich moist slopes, the forest understory and rocky ground
Native range: 8 states, north to West Virginia, south to Georgia and west to Alabama
List all 8
Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia
Also recorded in 2 other states, outside its native range. See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Mountain sweetbells is a deciduous shrub of the southern and central Appalachians, found in damp mountain woods, on heath balds and granite domes and at the edges of bogs. Its white bells hang in a row along curved sprays at the tips of last year's red twigs, before the new leaves open. It is the upland, leaf-dropping cousin of our swamp doghobble. Kentucky lists it as endangered, and NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in Georgia and West Virginia. Mass it along a shaded woodland path or on a moist slope, where its spring bells and red fall leaves can be seen.

Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as medium, like our swamp doghobble, about a foot and a half a year. It is a low, spreading, twiggy shrub, usually 6 to 8 feet tall, and it can reach 12 feet.

White, urn-shaped bells about a third of an inch long hang from curved, one-sided sprays from April into June, before the leaves. The leaves turn red in fall. The round capsules turn from green to brown from August to October, and birds eat the seeds.

It grows wild in the mountains from West Virginia and Kentucky south to Georgia and Alabama, in damp woods, heath balds, granite domes and bogs up to about 5,000 feet. Records from New York and Ohio may be escaped or naturalized plants.

How to grow Mountain Sweetbells

Mountain sweetbells does best in part shade, and it takes deep shade or sun. It needs a moist, fertile, acid soil that drains well. Set plants 5 feet apart and keep them 4 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and mulch with leaves, clear of the stems. Seed of its relative mountain doghobble needs light and no chilling, so sow it on the surface of a damp, fine mix, uncovered, in good light.

Water weekly through the first two summers. Deer tend to leave it alone. Prune, if at all, right after bloom, since the flowers come on last year's twigs.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, and bees and butterflies visit the flowers. It is harmful to cats, dogs and horses if they eat it.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (7)

Plan the planting