# Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius)

> Peeling bark, white flower balls in June, and a constitution that shrugs off drought, flood and cold.

Also called common ninebark, eastern ninebark. Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/ninebark/

![Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius) round white flower clusters in late spring](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/ninebark-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Jean-Pol GRANDMONT, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:0_Physocarpus_opulifolius_-_Samo%C3%ABns.JPG)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 5 to 10 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 2 to 8
- Grows wild in: Stream banks and rocky ground
- Native range: 33 states and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC), north to [North Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ND), south to [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL) and west to [Colorado](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CO) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Colorado](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CO), [Connecticut](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=CT), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Florida](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=FL), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Iowa](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IA), [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Massachusetts](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MA), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Minnesota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MN), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [Nebraska](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NE), [New Hampshire](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NH), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [North Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ND), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Oklahoma](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OK), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [Rhode Island](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=RI), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [South Dakota](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SD), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV), [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC)). Also recorded, not native, in [Maine](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=ME) and [Vermont](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VT)
- Sun: Full, Part
- Soil moisture: Dry, Average, Wet
- Growth rate: Fast
- Flowers: May to June
- Fruit: Capsules, July to December
- First crop: About 3 years (first flowers)
- Mature spread: 10 ft
- Traits: Showy flowers, Wildlife value, Drought tolerant, Tolerates wet soil, Winter interest, Erosion control, Bears young, Salt tolerant
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

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

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) or [in a pot](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/a-sapling-in-a-pot/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

## Notes

The straight native species, not the purple-leaved cultivars, is a fountain of arching stems with exfoliating bark and reddish seed clusters after the bloom. It grows on riverbanks and dry bluffs alike, hosts many native bees and moths, and survives zone 2 winters. A no-fuss shrub for hedges, slopes and rain gardens. In winter the bare stems show the peeling bark that leaves hide through the growing season. At home along a pond shore or a creek bank, where the roots hold the soil.

## Size, growth and what to expect

Ninebark builds an upright, mounded shrub of 5 to 10 feet, roughly as wide as it is tall, on arching stems. It grows fast, nearly three feet a year on an average site, which is the rate our growth estimator uses for it. Seedlings first flower in their third growing season.

The flowers come in late May and June in rounded white to pinkish clusters 1 to 2 inches across, like a spirea's, and they have special value to native bees and honey bees. By July they ripen into drooping clusters of reddish inflated capsules that stay on the plant until they shatter in winter, and seed-eating birds pick at them. Older stems shed their bark in papery strips to show reddish brown layers beneath, and the name ninebark comes from the notion that there are nine of those layers.

It grows wild from New York to Minnesota and South Dakota and south to Florida, Arkansas and Kansas, on stream banks, rocky hillsides and ledges, cliffs, fens and woodland edges. It tolerates heat, drought, compaction and road salt.

## How to grow Ninebark

Ninebark asks for sun and little else. It stands full sun or part shade and dry, average or wet ground, including a rain garden that floods and then bakes. Bloom thins in shade. Stems arch out wide, so allow 6 feet between plants and keep them off a narrow walk.

Set plants out in the dormant season. Saplings come bare-root or in pots. Dig a wide, shallow hole, hold the crown level with the ground, use the soil you removed, and mulch a ring clear of the stems. Staking a multi-stemmed shrub serves no purpose. Sow seed outdoors in fall an eighth of an inch deep, and seedlings come up early the next spring. For a spring sowing, keep it damp in the refrigerator for two months first.

Water through the first summer and it is on its own. Rabbits nip young stems over winter, so a wire cylinder for a year or two is worth the trouble, while deer rarely bother it. Prune within a few weeks of flowering, since next June's buds sit on wood that grew the year before.

Ninebark appears to need pollen from another plant to set seed, so plant two or more seedlings from different parents if you want seed. Take a few of the oldest canes to the ground each year and the shrub stays full. The one blemish is powdery mildew, a gray film in humid summers, worst where plants are crowded or shaded, and spacing answers it.

## Sources

- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox, Physocarpus opulifolius](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/physocarpus-opulifolius/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Physocarpus opulifolius](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=phop)
- [Morton Arboretum, Common ninebark](https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/common-ninebark/)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Physocarpus opulifolius](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/PHOP)
- [USDA NRCS Plant Guide: Atlantic ninebark, Physocarpus opulifolius](https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_phop.pdf)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual (2008), Physocarpus chapter, Youngblood, Gill and Pogge](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Physocarpus.pdf)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 9: Physocarpus opulifolius](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=220010406)
- [Minnesota Wildflowers: Physocarpus opulifolius, ninebark](https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/shrub/ninebark)
- [Virginia Tech Dendrology: common ninebark, Physocarpus opulifolius](https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=918)
- [Go Botany, Native Plant Trust: Physocarpus opulifolius](https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/physocarpus/opulifolius/)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Nativars or straight species: what wildlife gets from each](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/nativars-or-straight-species/index.html.md)
- [Native trees for insects: the beetles, wasps, cicadas and fireflies that everything else eats](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-insects/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)

## Related

- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Virginia Creeper](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/virginia-creeper/index.html.md), [Gray Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/gray-dogwood/index.html.md), [Roughleaf Dogwood](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/roughleaf-dogwood/index.html.md) and [Possumhaw](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/possumhaw/index.html.md)
- Trees to plant it under: [Cedar Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/cedar-elm/index.html.md), [Common Hackberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/common-hackberry/index.html.md) and [Rock Elm](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/rock-elm/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Limber Honeysuckle](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/limber-honeysuckle/index.html.md), [Squashberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/squashberry/index.html.md), [Oconee Azalea](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/oconee-azalea/index.html.md) and [Northern Snowberry](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/northern-snowberry/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Ninebark, add ?species=ninebark with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 2, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=ninebark&zone=2&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for Ninebark](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=ninebark): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for Ninebark as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=ninebark (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Ninebark is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=ninebark (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Ninebark needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 2 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=ninebark:2
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant Ninebark where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=ninebark&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far Ninebark goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=ninebark&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Ninebark flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=ninebark