Ask Kay What's Blooming? #5 Sweetspire and Beardtongue

The summer got away, so these posts aren't about what's blooming now--these are from early June.

Kay says:

Virginia Sweetspire--in this case Itea virginica 'Merlot'--is a wonderful four season shrub that is an important design element in the Staircase Garden.  It forms colonies and prefers moist conditions, so we have placed it on the uphill side of the sitting walls and near boulders where water will collect.  This generous plant offers dense red twigging in winter, lustrous green leaves that turn brilliant red in fall, and fragrant creamy white flower racemes--"spires"--in spring is a wonderful nectar plant for butterflies and a great plant for massing and stabilizing banks in the garden.

The second plant in this white and white color pairing is Penstemon digitalis 'Husker Red'--Beardtongue--a signature plant throughout the Native Plant Teaching Gardens.  Its burgundy basal leaves are semi-evergreen, and in late May, clouds of white flower spikes can be seen in many gardens.  Allowing these spikes to form seedheads and drop seed has created great drifts of plants that form a sturdy groundcover. 
By covering as much soil as possible with plants, there is less space available for weeds so that less mulch is necessary in the beds, conserving labor, money, and all of the fossil fuels necessary to transport mulch. It also reduces the opportunity for weed seeds that may travel within the mulch to be brought into the gardens.