Also called Japanese allspice.
If you want a fabulously fragrant shrub for an entryway consider Wintersweet. Its cheerful yellow blooms appear on leafless stems in late winter to early spring filling the air with a spicy fragrance. As spring progresses the lustrous, dark green, almond shaped leaves emerge creating a good background for other spring or summer flowering shrubs or a perfect place for summer flowering vines to ramble. In autumn the leaves turn yellow-green before they fall. Branches of wintersweet can be forced into bloom in winter and will fill the whole room with their wonderful scent.
Type: Deciduous flowering shrub.
Outstanding Feature: Fragrant flowers in late winter-early spring.
Form: Large mound.
Growth Rate: Slow.
Bloom: Fragrant, waxy sulfur-yellow flowers with purple-brown centers in late winter to early spring; produced on previous season’s growth.
Size: 10-15’ H x 8-12’ W.
Light: Sun to light shade.
Soil: Moist well drained; preferably acidic; tolerates a wide variety soils if not too dry or wet.
Hardy zone 4-9
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Sowing instructions
Seeds deveop a hard coat if overly dry. If so give a hot water treatment and soak 12-24 hours. Sow, barely covering seed, and tamp soil. Give 3 months cold moist stratification. Plastic cover greatly improves success. Move to warm site 59-72F. Days to germinate: 14-35. Transplant when a brownish hue on the seed root develops. Huge root system so use the appropriate sized container. Keep warm, moist (not wet) and give light.
