Calycanthus Floridus Buds

The attractive seed pods are about 2 long. Description calycanthus floridus commonly called carolina allspice is a dense rounded deciduous shrub with a suckering habit which grows 5 6 tall with an equal or slightly greater spread.

The Outlaw Gardener

Calycanthus floridus buds

The shrub tolerates clay and is pest free. Features very fragrant brown to reddish brown flowers 2 across which bloom at the ends of short branchlets in may. The riddle of sweet betsy by l a.

Flowers in may june with reddish maroon flowers but some var. They start in early summer and continue through the season in cooler areas like our west michigan trial gardne they bloom all summer long. Sweetshrub is native along the east coast from pennsylvania south to northern florida and west to mississippi.

It will grow somewhat taller in shade than in sun. Sweetshrub calycanthus floridus has many common names including carolina allspice strawberry bush sweet bubby sweet betsy and spicebush. Thanks to its scented flowers you may know sweetshrub calycanthus floridus as carolina allspice spicebush or strawberry bush.

The bark was widely used in the mountains as a substitute for allspice. As these names indicate it is valued for the sweet often fruity fragrance of its flowers. Opposite simple oval to elliptical entire margins 3 to 6 inches long smooth dark green above whitened and pubescent below.

Some gardeners say the reddish brown to dark wine colored blooms smell spicy while others detect hints of strawberries pineapples melons and other fruits. Native flower gardeners appreciate the unusual deep red blooms of the fragrant carolina allspice shrub calycanthus floridus. Calycanthus floridus commonly called carolina allspice is a dense rounded deciduous shrub with a suckering habit which grows 6 9 less frequently to 12 tall with an equal or slightly greater spread.

Heidi Horticulture Plant Profile Calycanthus Floridus Carolina