Itea virginica ‘Shirley's Compact’ Bob McCartney tarflower opens wide flowers of

tarflower opens wide flowers of seven separate petals

always-moist soil

for a plant still hard to find in the trade

dark green leaves are coarsely toothed and dusted with scattered yellow flecks

and anyone lucky enough to be passing

Itea virginica ‘Shirley's Compact’ Bob McCartney tarflower opens wide flowers ofItea virginica, the Virginia sweetspire, is a native shrub of eastern wetlands, familiar in gardens for fragrant white flower spikes and fiery fall color. 'Shirley's Compact,' sometimes called Shirley's Midget, takes the species to an extreme: a true miniature, a dense little bun of a plant with tiny, twisted, inch long leaves, growing so slowly that a ten year old clump may stand only a foot or a foot and a half tall while spreading two or three feet