Staggerbush

Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as medium, like our maleberry, about a foot and a half a year. It makes an upright shrub 2 to 6 feet tall and spreads by underground stems.

Nodding clusters of white or pinkish bells, a third to half an inch long, open from April into June on the leafless ends of last year's shoots. In freshly burned ground it may bloom again in fall. The oval capsules ripen in September and October. Bees work the flowers, and the leaves turn bright red in fall.

It grows wild on the coastal plain and Piedmont from Long Island and New Jersey south to Florida. Westward it reaches Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Its home is open, acid pine and oak woods, flatwoods and savannas, the edges of shrub bogs, pond margins and acid swamps.

How to grow Staggerbush

Staggerbush does best in filtered shade to full sun. It likes a moist to wet, sandy or peaty, acid soil, and it adapts to loamy garden soil that stays moist. Set plants 4 feet apart and keep them 3 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 pine needles or leaves, clear of the stems. The dust-fine seed of its relative maleberry needs no chilling. Sow it in spring on the surface of a moist peat and sand mix, uncovered, under a clear lid.

Water through dry spells in the first two summers. It spreads by underground stems. Prune right after flowering, since it blooms on last year's growth.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, and bees take its nectar. Its relative maleberry sets seed with its own pollen, so one plant should bear seed alone. No diseases or insect pests are known on it. Keep it away from grazing animals, which it can poison.