Garden Hotline: Little flowers offer big smell

Horticultural Consultant
Published Saturday, October 11, 2003

Some plants are noted for having showy blooms that are also fragrant. Gardenias, azaleas, crape myrtle and magnolias are a few that come to mind. There are other plants though that produce small but fragrant blooms. These can be fun to include in the landscape, as people can smell a sweet perfume, but have no idea where it is coming from.

One of the most fragrant shrubs we can grow is sweet osmanthus or tea olive. It is a large growing shrub to a height of 15 feet. Use it as an accent to perfume the landscape during the winter months. Tea olive is an evergreen plant that has moderate drought tolerance but low salt tolerance.

Banana shrub is a curious plant since it produces small yellow blooms that smell like bananas. It flowers in early spring and can grow in full sun to partial shade. Its tolerances are similar to those listed for tea olive. Use banana shrub as an accent or border plant in the landscape.

A salt and drought tolerant plant that can produce small fragrant flowers is pittosporum. This commonly grown shrub is typically placed in the landscape to be a clipped hedge. In this case, the spring growth that would produce fragrant blooms is clipped off before the flowers can mature. Grow a pittosporum, which can become 12-feet tall and even wider, in the landscape as an unclipped screen or accent and it will perfume an entire section of the landscape each spring.

Sweetshrub or Carolina allspice is a Florida native plant that can grow in sun or shade, tolerates moderate drought to poor drainage, but has low salt tolerance. It bears highly fragrant red flowers that are partially hidden by the dense foliage of the plant. This plant can grow to be about six-feet tall and just as wide. Use it as an accent, screen or espalier.

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