This shrub grows up to 8 feet tall and will produce yellow-green flowers from March to May. Its leaves will give off a spicy odor when crushed and is a fragrant addition to your garden. It produces red fruits, with a light peppery scent, from September to October. Its leaves, twigs and fruits have been used to make essential oils and fragrant teas. The dried powdered fruits can be used as a substitute for the spice “allspice.
Morella cerifera (L.) Small (wax myrtle, candleberry)
This shrub gets up to 20-30 feet tall and has a spread of 10-12 feet. It prefers full sun to partial shade and is both an evergreen and drought tolerant. Wax Myrtle has a fast growth rate so you can enjoy the full beauty of it faster than most others in the bayberry family. It has a lavender-like fragrance and the birds love the seeds it produces. You can propagate this by softwood cuttings.
Itea virginica L. (Virginia sweetspire)
This is a beautiful shrub that will reach a height of near 8 feet when mature. Its flowers are white, plume-like and arching, and abundant. This is a nice showy shrub for a decorative garden. Good for any type of use, from full sun to full shade although it does prefer to be planted in moist rich soils. This does have a slow growth rate, so keep in mind when planning your garden. It is very fragrant, so butterflies tend to flock to it. You can propagate this by dividing the rootball. It’s a suckering shrub, so it can get invasive without keeping an eye on it.
Fothergilla major (Mountain Witchalder, Fothergilla)
This shrub gets up to 6-10 feet tall and has a spacing zone of 4-10 feet. It prefers full sun to partial shade, and is good for fall color. Mountain Witchalder has white fragrant blooms in mid spring. Plant this is moist soil, without letting it dry out too much.
Clethra alnifolia L. (Coastal Sweetpepperbush, Summersweet)
This shade tolerant deciduous shrub will grow up to 8 feet tall. It has lovely reddish-brown bark. This shrub is mainly used purely ornamental due to its incredibly fragrant white flowers that appear July to August. It will fruit from September to October, but has little value to livestock and deer.
Calycanthus floridus L. (Eastern Sweetshrub, Carolina Allspice)
This deciduous shrub grows 4-8 feet tall. Its shape will depend on your planting technique; Full Sun locations will make it tight and round, and Shady locations will make it a more loose open shape. Leaves are fragrant when crushed, and has spicy scented rusty red flowers from May to June. It needs moist soil. A worry-free shrub, it’s perfect for those who enjoy drying flowers and bark for potpourri.
Aesculus parviflora Walt. (Bottlebrush buckeye)
This shrub grows from 6-12 feet high and prefers shady locations. It has four-petal white flowers that give off a honey like fragrance, and fruits that have a nutlike appearance. This was used as a treatment for colic and whooping cough traditionally. Its wood is used for packing crates.
