Not to worry -- your Clethra will be the last shrub to leaf out in your garden. If you really need assurance, scratch the bark lightly with your fingernail, and you'll see green underneath the brown skin.

My Hummingbirds look just like yours. It is just what they do.

Thank you, Gardenscout. They are standing out like sore thumbs in my front bed, with everything else so green, but since they look so nice the rest of the year I will forgive them.

Yes, Clethra alnifolia is among the last plants to show new foliage in central KY. Crape myrtle and coffeetree are right there with them.

Same here in PA. Though I will also say that mine did take some damage after last winter and lost a number of substantial shoots. I am curious to see how it does this year.

I learned that about my crape myrtles last year. I had one in PA where I lived before and never noticed how late it was, I guess because it was in an out of the the way space. In PA, my latest greener-upper was caryopteris, bluebeard shrub. I put some in last summer here and they look more alive than the clethra.

I am glad I saw this post I thought for sure my Hummingbird summersweet was completely dead. It doesn't even have buds on it. When I got it last fall I thought it was so pretty and hoped it would make it through our harsh winter up here. I guess I will just have to give it more time.

Yep, mine just started to show a little tippy tip of green two days ago. So give it a while :-)

Hope someone can help with my question. Last fall my partner got overly zealous with pruning and cut my clethra alnifolia almost to the ground. So far this season there is no sign of life. Is there a chance it will come back or should I just replace it. It was about three years old and did really well. Thanks for your help.

A good rule of thumb is that if it blooms late (summer, fall), it leafs out late in the spring. Examples are clethra, hydrangea, rose of sharon but they are not the only ones. Important to remember when landscaping.

The answer to the question "is it late leafing out or is it dead?" is "both"

My clethra is leafing out and it also looks dead. It has never had a bloom and this year I decided not to prune even a twig. The stems are greening up, have dead tips, there's nothing lovely about shape or habit. And the base is a mess.

Yep, I've just talked myself into getting rid of it.
Marie

Thanks, friends!

I haven't decided what to do with my Hummingbird yet. Luckily I didn't p*lant it in an area that is a big display area without realizing it leafed out so late. I really enjoyed mine the last couple of years. Pretty foliage, nice f*ragrance.

This year, it seems to have died out in the middle some and it suckers at the same time, so it looks odd at the moment, with growth coming up in the middle of a neighboring geranium and some bare branches in the middle. I am definitely not going to get rid of it, but may have to p*lant it in a different location.

One good thing about it leafing out so late, the Winter Moth Caterpillars haven't made a mess of the foliage!

Color me chagrined and a little embarrassed. Just a couple of posts ago I complained and complained about my clethra and rather scornfully claimed I wouldn't cut back the dead branches, as if that would be the end of the plant for me.

I don't think its been a week yet, and the tips of many of the branches have flower buds. I do believe I've been cutting off the flower buds for a mighty long time.

In my own defense, many of the branches still look half dead. This plant stays ugly for a might long time.

Do pollinators love it? If so, I'll move it up to the hillside where I don't have to look at it, but the bees might find it.

Idabean, I think pollinators do like it--mine had lots of bees last season.

Mine are very full-bodied and have no empty twigs or anything. They have nice flowers when in bloom, but I also like the way the bare branches and dried flower bracts look in winter. Maybe yours are having a hard time?

Hi Clethra alnifolia lovers. I think I've found the right place for Hummingbird and with anyone's experience here with the Summer Sweet, good or not so good, please tell me if it could very well thrive between the houses-- open shade with short periods of direct sun and average to fertile soil?
It would be a companion to a Dappled Elder that hardly flowers
Hoping the Clethra "Hummingbird would offer more color and interest at the side of the house.
If flowering would be an issue in this location would someone with experience let know Thanks so much !

I'm not sure about how much light Clethra requires. Mine is planted on the east/southeast facing front of my house, and gets full sun until about 2 in the afternoon, when it is shaded by the house but still gets light. Until this drought year, it has done very well and made lots of flowers with that amount of light and minimal (if any) supplemental water. I did water mine a few times this summer because of the drought.