Plant for Success

Fothergilla ‘Mount Airy’

by Kristin M. Casey, MCH

Reasons This Plant Shines

Summer starts to wind down in the garden, and it’s time for some of your plants to ramp up. Fothergilla ‘Mount Airy’ delivers in this department. I love this plant for its beautiful spring flowers that smell like honey and bring pollinators to my yard.

The plant hosts bottlebrush-shaped, white inflorescences in April and May before the foliage emerges. Its sweet nectar attracts bees.

Healthy, leathery-green leaves with bluish-grey undersides then emerge, looking clean and healthy through the summer.

I’m indebted to this plant for the way it packs a punch of brilliant colors in my landscape when the temperatures cool down and we want to hold on to the magic of color in the garden before the greys and browns take over. Fothergilla ‘Mount Airy’ hosts an amazing tapestry of red, orange, yellow, and purple foliage. Yes — all these colors share the spotlight on this one plant.

But wait... on closer inspection, you can find mesmerizing patterns of all these exceptional colors on an individual leaf. Fothergilla will attract young and old gardeners alike to smell its flowers and find whimsical patterns on its fall foliage, but the deer aren’t interested. This is further testament to the reason Fothergilla ‘Mounty Airy’ shines in the landscape.

Kristin M. Casey, MCH Cape Abilities Farm Harwich, Massachusetts Facts and Features

Fothergilla is native to the Eastern United States. It was named after English botanist Dr. John Fothergilla (1712–1780). The cultivar ‘Mount Airy’ was discovered by Michael Dirr at the Mt. Airy Arboretum in Cincinnati, Ohio.

This deciduous, flowering shrub showcases its best fall color in full sun but also tolerates some shade. It prefers acidic, well-drained soil and plenty of organic matter. Pruning of this shrub is seldom needed, but if necessary, prune directly after flowers have passed. It is cold hardy and disease resistant, as well as not palatable to deer. There are no noted serious problems with Fothergilla ‘Mount Airy’. It is a slow grower and will reach a height of 3 to 5 feet tall and wide. It’s wonderful planted in a woodland setting, as a specimen piece, within a mixed perennial border, or as a mass planting.

The most impressive planting of Fothergilla ‘Mt. Airy’ I have witnessed was a mass planting against a stand of blue spruce. Pure fall interest perfection!

Deciduous Flowering Shrub

Soil: Average, acidic, organic, well drained Exposure: Full Sun to Part Sun Fall Color: Brilliant reds, oranges, purple Growth Rate: Slow to moderate Size: 3 to 5 feet high and wide Zone 5–8