{"title":"Sweetshrub (Calycanthus)","description":"\u003cp\u003eCarolina allspice is the rare shrub sited by the nose rather than the eye. The flowers are dark maroon, strap-petalled, and easy to miss at a distance, but the scent carries: ripe strawberry in some plants, crushed melon or old wine in others, and in a few nothing much at all. Fragrance in \u003cem\u003eCalycanthus floridus\u003c\/em\u003e is genuinely variable from seedling to seedling, which is the whole argument for buying a named selection, or for buying in bloom.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Athens' is the yellow-flowered form with a heavy fruit-punch scent, found near Athens, Georgia, and one of the great Southeastern shrub selections; 'Michael Lindsey' holds glossy foliage and reliable fragrance. \u003cem\u003eCalycanthus\u003c\/em\u003e x \u003cem\u003eraulstonii\u003c\/em\u003e 'Hartlage Wine' came out of a cross made at North Carolina State between the native and the Chinese sweetshrub, and carries much larger wine-red flowers with only a faint fragrance, which is a fair trade for the size. Site any of them along a path or a doorway, in sun or part shade, and walk past often.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"calycanthus-floridus","title":"Calycanthus floridus","description":"\u003cp\u003eSome plants are loved for how they look. \u003cem\u003eCalycanthus floridus\u003c\/em\u003e is loved for how they smell, which is a different and older kind of attachment. The flowers are strange and handsome in their own right, an inch or two across, dark maroon going toward burgundy, built from many narrow strap-like segments with no clear line between petal and sepal, somewhere between a small magnolia and something from the bottom of the sea. But the reason this shrub has been passed down through Southern gardens for three centuries is what happens when the flowers open on a warm day: a deep fruit-bowl perfume, strawberry and pineapple and ripe banana, that drifts well beyond the plant.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere is the honest catch, and it is the whole reason provenance matters with this one. The fragrance is gloriously inconsistent. Grown from seed, the scent varies wildly plant to plant, some intoxicating, some barely there, which is why old garden wisdom says to smell before you buy and why the good forms have always been passed hand to hand rather than left to chance. The leaves and bark carry their own spice when bruised, so even between bloom and a fragrance you can rely on, there is something to crush between your fingers on the walk past.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe history runs deep. Calycanthus came into cultivation in 1726 and never left; Jefferson planted nineteen of them at Monticello in 1778, recording them under the country name \"bubby flower,\" and the shrub has carried a small constellation of names ever since, Carolina allspice, sweet Betsy, sweet bubby, strawberry-bush. The flowers were once tucked into the top drawer of a dresser to scent the linens, which tells you most of what you need to know about how people have felt about them. This is an heirloom in the truest sense, a plant kept alive by being wanted.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey make a dense, rounded shrub of six to nine feet, suckering gently into a colony over time, and they are as easygoing as they are old-fashioned: untroubled by pests, indifferent to soil, happy from full sun into real shade. There is a tradeoff worth knowing. In full sun they flower and scent most heavily but spread more freely; in shade they grow slower and stay more contained. Either way the foliage turns clean gold in fall and the curious urn-shaped pods hang on into winter. Native to the woodlands of the Southeast, \u003cem\u003eCalycanthus floridus\u003c\/em\u003e asks for almost nothing and gives back a fragrance you will cross the yard for.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Bare Root (~2')","offer_id":42820149018739,"sku":"CALY-FLOR-BARE","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"1 Gallon","offer_id":42820149051507,"sku":"CALY-FLOR-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/CalycanthusfloridusWoodlanders1MBG.jpg?v=1738787407"},{"product_id":"calycanthus-floridus-athens","title":"Calycanthus floridus 'Athens'","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCalycanthus floridus\u003c\/em\u003e 'Athens', also circulated under the name 'Katherine', is a yellow-flowered selection of the Eastern sweetshrub, a deciduous native of the Southeastern woodlands long grown for fragrance, adaptability, and strange, many-tepaled flowers. Where the wild plant blooms a deep maroon, 'Athens' opens soft, buttery yellow, an unexpected and elegant turn on a familiar shrub.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe pale flowers carry a ripe, almost tropical perfume, closer to melon and pineapple than the strawberry scent of the maroon forms. Bloom comes in mid to late spring and returns here and there through summer, the flowers tucked among glossy mid-green leaves that furnish the shrub densely from spring to the clear yellow of autumn.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis selection was shared with the plantsman Dr. Michael Dirr by Jane Symmes of the now-closed Cedar Lane Farms in Madison, Georgia. Dirr named the plant 'Katherine' for his daughter, but the name 'Athens', honoring the University of Georgia town where the selection took hold, became the one most gardeners use. Dirr rated this group among the most sun and heat tolerant of all the sweetshrubs he trialed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrowing six to eight feet tall and wide, 'Athens' sweetshrub takes part shade to full sun and a wide range of well-drained soils, spreading slowly by suckers into a loose colony over time. Deer-resistant, drought-tolerant once established, and altogether low-maintenance, the shrub belongs wherever fragrance is wanted up close: a woodland border, a native planting, or beside a door or path where the scent can be caught mid-stride.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057822208115,"sku":"CALY-FLOR-ATHE-01G","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Calycanthusfloridus_Athens_JCRAWoodlanders2.jpg?v=1749161653"},{"product_id":"calycanthus-floridus-michael-lindsey","title":"Calycanthus floridus 'Michael Lindsey'","description":"\u003cp\u003eCalycanthus floridus 'Michael Lindsey' is the sweetshrub gardeners reach for when fragrance is the whole point. The species, Carolina allspice, is a southeastern native beloved for reddish-brown flowers that smell of ripe fruit, but the scent varies wildly from seedling to seedling, and 'Michael Lindsey' was chosen precisely for a rich, dependable perfume. Add glossy dark green foliage and clear golden fall color, and this selection has become a benchmark, one the plantsman Michael Dirr called the standard by which other introductions will be measured.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWoodlanders owes this plant to the plantsman Allen Bush, who selected, named, and introduced 'Michael Lindsey' through his Holbrook Farm and Nursery in Fletcher, North Carolina, now long closed. The clone earned a Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Gold Medal on merit, chief among the reasons that reliable fruity fragrance carried on flowers of deep reddish-brown. In warm weather the scent, variously read as strawberry, pineapple, or melon, drifts on the air rather than waiting to be found.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe genus name joins the Greek words for calyx and flower, for the curious bloom in which petals and sepals look alike, a ring of narrow, strappy, magnolia-like tepals. Those flowers run a clever trap, since the fruity scent lures small beetles inside, where they shelter and feed before carrying pollen out to the next bloom, an ancient pollination bargain older than bees on flowers. The aromatic bark and leaves, spicy when bruised, gave rise to the allspice names, though every part carries the alkaloid calycanthine and should never be eaten.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSite Calycanthus floridus 'Michael Lindsey' where people pass close, beside a path, a doorway, a patio, or a seat, so the fragrance is part of the day. The shrub takes full sun to part shade and average, well-drained soil, growing dense and rounded and asking little, and the cut flowers scent a room. For a native, trouble-free, deer-resistant shrub that earns a place on perfume alone, this is among the very best.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057822306419,"sku":"CALY-FLOR-MICH-LIND-01G","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1911.jpg?v=1720136858"},{"product_id":"calycanthus-hybridus-venus","title":"Calycanthus hybridus ‘Venus’","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCalycanthus\u003c\/em\u003e 'Venus' is a white-flowered sweetshrub bred by Dr. Tom Ranney at North Carolina State University, drawing on three species at once: the Eastern Carolina allspice (\u003cem\u003eCalycanthus floridus\u003c\/em\u003e), the California sweetshrub (\u003cem\u003eCalycanthus occidentalis\u003c\/em\u003e), and the Chinese sweetshrub (\u003cem\u003eCalycanthus chinensis\u003c\/em\u003e, long known as \u003cem\u003eSinocalycanthus\u003c\/em\u003e). The result is a deciduous shrub that carries the best of all three: hardiness, substance, and an unusual flower.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePlump, yellow-green buds open to broad white blooms, magnolia-like and a little smaller than a star magnolia, washed with yellow and a flush of purple at the center. The flowers are fragrant, ripe and fruity in the manner of strawberries and melon, and appear from late spring into summer above glossy, dark green leaves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Venus' grows upright and full, roughly five to six feet tall and wide, and asks little beyond sun or light shade and a moist, well-drained soil. Clean foliage, a long season of bloom, and a tidy, non-running habit make this hybrid an easy choice for a mixed border, a fragrant foundation planting, or anywhere a white-flowered shrub is wanted near a path or seat.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057822339187,"sku":"CALY-HYBR-VENU-01G","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Calycanthushybridus_Venus_JohnGrimshaw.jpg?v=1784858664"},{"product_id":"calycanthus-x-raulstonii-hartlage-wine","title":"Calycanthus x raulstonii 'Hartlage Wine'","description":"\u003cp\u003eBorn of careful hands and watchful eyes at the JC Raulston Arboretum in North Carolina, \u003cem\u003eCalycanthus\u003c\/em\u003e × \u003cem\u003eraulstonii\u003c\/em\u003e 'Hartlage Wine' is a sweetshrub of uncommon grace. Richard Hartlage made the cross as an undergraduate at North Carolina State University in 1991, pairing the Southern native Carolina allspice (\u003cem\u003eCalycanthus floridus\u003c\/em\u003e) with the refined Chinese sweetshrub (\u003cem\u003eCalycanthus chinensis\u003c\/em\u003e); the seedling first flowered in 1996, and the hybrid name honors J.C. Raulston, the arboretum's late director.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom late spring the branches open deep wine-red blooms touched with gold at the center, each broad and open like a small magnolia, nearly three inches across and lightly sweet. The show begins in May and lingers through summer, with flowers returning here and there into early fall above lush, glossy, deep green leaves that close the season in soft gold.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGrowing upright and full, eight to ten feet tall and wide, 'Hartlage Wine' asks for little more than good soil and a touch of shade from the hottest sun. Unlike the native kin, this hybrid does not run underground, staying well-mannered and easy to manage in a thoughtful garden. Long-blooming, deer-resistant, and rich with seasonal presence, the shrub belongs by a shaded path or at a woodland edge, the sort of plant that stays with a gardener long after the last bloom fades.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057822404723,"sku":"CALY-RAUL-HART-WINE-01G","price":38.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/Calycanthusxraulstonii_HartlageWine_NWBotanista.jpg?v=1784858896"}],"url":"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/collections\/sweetshrub.oembed","provider":"Woodlanders","version":"1.0","type":"link"}