Chocoholic Black Snakeroot - September 2020

The next up in my purchase(s) at the Morton Arboretum Fall Plant Sale is one of these Chocoholic Black Snakeroot (Actacea 'Chocoholic').    The sign from the sale is below, but for the short-hand reason for why I bought it?  It flowers in Full Shade.  And, like it or not, I'm a shade gardener.   This snakeroot grows to 4-5' tall and a three-to-four foot spread.  

The description from the sign reads:

Bronze purple foliage is a welcome addition to the shade garden.  Rich mauve-pink flowers lighten to white as they age.  Forms a dense, upright clump.  

Below is a photo of the full plant showing the current height and clump size.   I haven't thought about Snakeroot before, but when I saw this one flowering, I couldn't pass it up.  

The ball-like flower buds have started to explode into white flowers. 
 

The Chocoholic Version is one of many versions of Snakeroot.  Walter's Garden thinks highly of this cultivar:

This lovely native cultivar adds wonderful texture, color, and height to the shade garden. From late summer through early fall, fragrant bottlebrush flowers dance above the bronze purple foliage. They are a rich mauve-pink color when they open and lighten to white as they age.

Cimicifuga is a wonderfully lacy, airy backdrop in the garden. It is especially attractive when combined with variegated or yellow foliage.

I'm going to plant this by my flowering cherry tree about half-way back in our yard on the southside.  

The tag below calls out hostas, ferns and Ligulria as companion plants.  I have all three of those.

2020 Morton Arboretum Fall Plant Sale Posts:

• A pair of Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses destined for outside our screened porch
• A unique, ruffled hosta named Waterslide
• An upright and narrow hosta - Praying Hands Hosta
• A Japanese grass that I've lusted after finally was added to our yard - the All Gold Grass.
• A lacy backdrop plant - the Chocoholic Black Snakeroot - that was new to me.