Dichroa febrifuga Allen Bush Site the Styx River rosemary

Site the Styx River rosemary where the trailing form and aromatic foliage earn their keep: a rock or gravel garden

The display is subtle rather than showy

In the garden

Upright and clean

nearly unbranched stems

Dichroa febrifuga Allen Bush Site the Styx River rosemaryFew garden shrubs carry a resume like Dichroa febrifuga. In the ground this is a handsome, medium evergreen with lacecap heads of small blue flowers in late spring and, better still, clusters of berries in fall that ripen to an almost unreal iridescent, metallic blue, the kind of structural color usually reserved for beetles and tropical birds. A relatively recent introduction from China, the plant sits close enough to Hydrangea, in the family