Plant of the Week!

On a tour of the Illinois Executive Mansion in Springfield this week, it was hard not to notice the beautiful Bottlebrush Buckeyes (Aesculus parviflora) blooming!

The bottlebrush buckeye is a multi-stemmed, suckering shrub that suckers to form a colony which usually ends up being taller than it is wide, about 6-10' tall and 15-20' wide. Bottlebrush buckeye is noted for being one of the best summer-flowering shrubs for shade areas and is a great shrub for filling a large space in the garden.

Typically around the end of June into the first week of July, this shrub will produce small, white flowers in 8-12 inches bottlebrush-like clusters. Followed by autumn foliage that is yellow green, or occasionally yellow.

This shrub can be easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soils in full sun and part shade to full shade. It prefers rich, moist loams and is intolerant of dry soils, particularly in the early years before its root system becomes well established.

As an Illini alumni and fan, its hard to admit to liking any type of buckeye, but this buckeye I definitely approve of!

Learn more here: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/ShrubSelector/detail_plant.cfm?PlantID=343