Growing Astilbe

Growing Astilbe makes you a member of the gardening fraternity who grows one of this most stalwart of plants. This is a plant that the breeders have worked on to improve the foliage, improve the bloom and bloomtime as well as incorporating a range of new colors. What's not to like about this plant?

Here's how to grow it.

Growing Conditions

Shade to sunshine. The trick to growing this plant is to ensure it has adequate moisture. This is not a plant for dry soils.

It is hardy to USDA zone 3

Will spread from 12-inches to as large as you want to allow it to grow. This is a spreading plant and can be a bit invasive in moist gardens.It is easily managed by edging with a sharp shovel in the spring to confine it. This means of course that you can propagate it by dividing it in the spring or fall.

A shovel of compost in the spring is all the fertilizing it requires.

Varieties: (too many to list)

'Amethyst' deep lavender
'Bressingham' Beauty vibrant, deep pink
'Fanal' older variety bronze leaves in spring then green, red plumes
'Flamingo' taller variety with flamingo-pink flowers
'Peaches and Cream' pale pink shading to white, mid-summer bloomer
'Snowdrift' a pure white bloom on top of compact leaves
'Edens Odysseus' soft pink flower with lacy bronze-reddish leaves
'Jump and Jive' a magenta pink flower over green compact foliage
'Peach Blossom' soft peach-pink flowers
'Sprite' shell pink flowers over bronze leaves. Perennial Plant of the Year
'Milk and Honey' white and pink blend, tolerates drier soil than most
Astilbe chinensis var pumila, a dwarf with lavender-rose flowers

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