Carolina Allspice

May 1, 2017

 Could you please identify the following shrub?   I have enclosed a sample.  It blooms with dark red flowers that are almost brown.  They really smell good.  The shrub is fairly large and growing in partial shade.  Without the blooms, the shrub is nothing special, but the flowers last a long time and are really interesting.  I have some friends who would like to buy one but we don’t know what to ask for

The plant in question is a Calycanthus floridus, commonly called sweet shrub or Carolina allspice.  It is a wonderful native plant.  It grows quickly in partial shade with relatively little care.  The flowers remind me of the carved wooden flowers, with reddish brown blooms.  They also root readily from cuttings.  There are several new varieties that have showier blooms including ‘Aphrodite’ and ‘Venus’.  A hybrid ‘Hartlage Wine' also has large showy blooms.

All links to external sites open in a new window. You may return to the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture web site by closing this window when you are finished. We do not guarantee the accuracy of the information, or the accessibility for people with disabilities listed at any external site.

Links to commercial sites are provided for information and convenience only. Inclusion of sites does not imply University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture's approval of their product or service to the exclusion of others that may be similar, nor does it guarantee or warrant the standard of the products or service offered.

The mention of any commercial product in this web site does not imply its endorsement by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture over other products not named, nor does the omission imply that they are not satisfactory.