Shade Gardening: Goat's Beard vs Astilbe, 1 by sempervirens

sempervirens wrote:
I have never thought of goatsbeard, (Aruncus dioicus, this is the tall native goatsbeard,) and Astilbe as similar until you mentioned it .
I always thought of Astible as a smaller plant (2 ft.) with straight up plumes and goatsbeard as a really big plant ( 4-6 ft.) that could really look like a shrub that had long white loose spikes of flowers that hung down more like a bridal veil spirea.
Also the goatsbeard has separate male and female plants and the male flowers have a fluffier,softer look.
I think the plant I have is a female.
Mine is placed in medium shade in a native plant rain garden behind some sun lovers.
It doesn't look out of place with the tall (10 ft.) native red twig dogwood Cornus stolonifera to the left and behind an Amsonia.

This message was edited Mar 14, 2013 12:30 AM

This message was edited Mar 14, 2013 12:34 AM