Comptonia peregrina

I am not a fern...I am a shrub...and a fragrant one at that! The common name, sweet fern, sums up its namesake well. Comptonia hails from Canada south to northern Georgia, where it is usually found on sandy dry soils in full sun as well as under an open canopy of sparse pine trees. The thick, fern-like, green leaves are deliciously fragrant, as is common in its family, Myricaceae...think wax myrtles. Comptonia peregrina spreads by short stolons, so don't plant it near smaller, less aggressive neighbors. Sweet fern is a renaissance plant in the garden...a nitrogen fixer as well as a larval host for a wide range of moths and butterflies....and it looks really sweet!