Growing Butterburs: Tips at a Glance
Butterburs are a perennial ground cover best suited to wet soil at the edge of a pond, stream, marsh, or river. With their fast-growing root systems, they can create a dense mat of ground cover to prevent erosion on a slope.
- Type Groundcover
- Lifespan Perennial
- USDA Zones 4-9
- Light Partial shade
- Soil Moist
- When to Plant Spring
- Design Tip Enormous leaves
- Companions Arums
- Peak Season Cabbage flowers in spring
Butterburs 101: A Field Guide
Native to Asia, giant butterburs (Petasites japonicus) have the curious ability to emerge in early spring as clumps of cauliflower-shaped posies and by summertime to grow enormous 3-foot leaves that act as a dense ground cover, only to die back completely in winter.
Perennial butterburs are happiest in moist soil, at the edge of a pond, marsh, or river in a temperate climate (they are winter hardy in USDA growing zones 4 to 9). Tip: This is a plant to admire from a distance rather than to try to wade through its quilt of rhizomatous roots.
For more plants to site at water’s edge, see pond garden choices in Hardscaping 101: Natural Swimming Pools.
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