'Sugar Shack' Buttonbush

9 years ago

Anyone have experience with this cultivar? I've always liked Buttonbushes but never had room for them. Apparently 'Sugar Shack' is 3-4 feet tall and wide. I was thinking about putting one in my new rain garden along with an Itea virginica.

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Comments (3)

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Select Landscapes of Iowa
9 years ago
I don't have personal experience with this cultivar, but have seen them in person and I do not believe it will stay as small as stated.

While it may have a reduced rate of growth in comparison to normal buttonbush, I am still expecting Sugar Shack to be in the 6-7' range fairly quickly. They are a great native so if you can deal with a little pruning it would be a great addition to your garden!
NHBabs z4b-5a NH
9 years ago
Here's a link to an article on it in a Canadian journal, and the photos show it as growing more slowly than the comparison cultivar, 'Sputnik'. I've only been seeing references to 'Sugar Shack' since 2013, so I imagine that the jury is still out on its ultimate size in different parts of the US. I don't know anyone who has grown it. The plain species gets larger in southern areas, so this cultivar may get larger for you, IDK.
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Hi Bboy, Famartin, Jqpublic, and Wisconsinitom, I'm not surprised that the sugar maple can make it to 500 years in ideal conditions. The person who has been hauling away the lumber from our tree has found an iron peg, and today a nail (with his chainsaw, unfortunately), revealing a glimpse into a history we can only guess at. But we have stands of native sugar maples all around Ontario and throughout Quebec and New Brunswick. It is a ubiquitous tree here. The "sugar bush", and the "sugar shack" (where the sap is boiled down) are common expressions here. The Mennonites and many other farmers and chefs tap the trees in the spring. Municipalities and cities often extend special agreements to allow farmers to tap the trees on city or regional land. Maple syrup is a huge commodity here with maple syrup festivals every spring. This year the sap was running earlier than usual. Jqpublic, I do have photos of the trees in the Fall, but I'll have to find them and post them online before I can publish them here. They are indeed majestic. Ours tend to yellow, and yellow/orange. Here's a tiny glimpse from my studio of the one we cut down (never to be seen again):
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I would take away the Sun Gold or Sun Sugar to be honest, I prefer the rich and acidic taste of Black Cherry compared to Sun Gold, and the former is stronger and produces large fruits (I had some good rain last year and the fruits were double the size they sold at WholeFoods). Also as a personal thing, I like to grow more heirlooms to save seeds rather than hybrid. With that said, one of the variety I'll be growing for sweetness for 2016 is Parkseed's Nectar hybrid, which is beginning to flower for me, it's claimed to score high in brix test, although I didn't give mine plant much special treatment this time, straight in the soil with no amendments. This blogs mentioned Sweet Baby Girl average at 8+ brix value, and Nectar at 10. http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/tomatoes.htm Also you could reduce the number of Matt's Wild Cherry, I haven't grown it (growing it now, the leaves are uniquely darker green with roundish edges), but if it's similar to another currant sized tomato like Florida's Everglades then they grow wild with lots of fruits. If one plant makes it I think you will get lots of fruits, it'll likely take up a lot of space with many suckers.
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Until recently, Burpee sold Sugar Shack cherry. It may have been a Burpee exclusive. They no longer sell it. Did the rights to it get acquired by some company - like what happened to Santa? Noone else on the Internet seems to have it for sale. Does anyone have a seed source for it?
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Embothrium
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Everything keeps growing, when you read a shrub grows 4' tall that will always be a representative size for a certain period of time. Each kind will grow a lot less on some sites and a lot more on others, will live longer under better conditions, and so forth - none of them are tables and chairs, that remain the same size indefinitely, wherever they are placed.

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'Sugar Shack' Buttonbush

Comments (3)

Select Landscapes of Iowa

NHBabs z4b-5a NH

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