Rue is grown primarily for its foliage, rather than for its flowers.  It grows about 2¼' tall in my garden.  The airy flowers appear in late spring, and bloom for a short period of time. The plant will produce a few flowers here and there the rest of the year.  I prune my plants with hedge clippers after flowering because the seed pods are very heavy, causing the stems to bend over.  Don't cut all the dead flowers off if you want to harvest some seeds!  To avoid cold damage, rue should be cut back in the spring, rather than in the fall.  Eastern Black Swallowtail butterflies lay their eggs on rue.  The foliage is known to cause skin discoloration if handled roughly in hot weather.  However, when the foliage lightly comes in contact with the skin, it gives the skin a pleasant coconut smell.