Fragrance for shade

I was reading in one of the threads that Happy was looking for fragrance for shade. I too have almost all shade, so any and all suggestions are welcome.

Just found this one this morning: Calycanthus 'Venus'
It is a fragrant shrub with magnolia like flowers that likes shade AND is deer resistant. Sign me up! Half price at Bluestone http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/CAVEP.html - Hmmm I just ordered 3 :-)

Consolidated list from posts on the original thread I was reading:

Gardenia ('Frostproof', vienamensis)
Viburnum x burkwoodi 'Mohawk'
Daphnes
Osmanthus fragrans
Sweet Olives
Viola odorata 'Queen Charlotte'
Ixora odorata

Additions from this thread:
Bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica)
Calycanthus ('Venus', 'Athens', 'Michael Lindsey')
Clethra ('Sixteen Candles', 'Hummingbird', 'Ruby Spice', 'Sherry Sue', 'September Beauty')
Clethra barbinervis
Corydalis ('Blue Panda', 'Purple Leaf', 'Blackberry Wine', 'Berry Exciting')
Itea ('Henry's Garnet', 'Saturnalia')
Sweet Bay (Sarcocca confusa)

This message was edited Mar 3, 2009 6:50 AM

This message was edited Mar 3, 2009 9:13 AM

This message was edited Mar 11, 2009 8:08 AM

Thanks to Chantell for sending me here, and thanks to Aspenthomas for this thread! Great minds, and all that -- I ordered a Venus from Bluestone in January! Hasn't come yet.

Thanks for consolidating that list. That is very helpful!

Right now my garden looks so dreary that it is hard to imagine it being either green or fragrant!

I have several Calycanthus. They seem to like more sun than shade. The ones that I have in part shade aren't nearly as nice as the ones with more sun. With more shade they seem to grow more horizontal. Of course it could just be me.
Besides Venus, I also have Athens and Michael Lindsey. I like them all but I like the flowers on Venus best.

Clethra is a great plant for shade. They have wonderfully fragrant flowers in August and September when other things in the garden are winding down. The cultivars that I have are Sixteen Candles, Hummingbird, Sherry Sue, and September beauty. I like them all for different reasons. Sixteen candles is the smallest with upright flowers. Hummingbird has a nice form and the bees love it. Sherry Sue has beautiful red stems on new growth. And September beauty looks nice in winter and might be the longest blooming for me.

They aren't fussy plants but they don't like to dry out. I have them in sun and part shade areas but they are supposed to flower just fine in full shade.

Velnita, thanks for the info. I wasn't familiar with clethra, so I looked it up in plant files - nice. I'll pick one or two of the varieties you mentioned for my gardens this season. I've been adding a little to my mail order list each week thruout the winter - gotta love armchair gardening, but I'm getting axious to get back outside!!! Terri

This was my 'Hummingbird' last year.

This is September Beauty.

This shows the reddish bark of Sherry Sue with the flowers just opening. Sherry will get a lot bigger than the Sixteen candles and Hummingbird and isn't as dense. Still, I like the color of the bark and planted it as a backdrop to my red garden.

This is Sixteen Candles, almost ready to bloom.

I'd like to try Ann Bidwell someday but I'm running out of room. I'd also like to try Ruby Spice--it has rose-colored flowers that aren't supposed to fade.
All of the Clethra alnifolia are supposed to be very fragrant. I know that the ones that I have and Ruby Spice are. It's a very sweet fragrance that drifts on the breeze.
This site tells about some of the lesser-known cultivars.
http://members.tripod.com/~Hatch_L/clet0219.html

There is another shrub that I'd love to try but I really don't have enough shade. Bayberry. Myrica pensylvanica (sometimes spelled pennsylvanica). Our local arboretum has a beautiful stand of them planted. It is the plant that is used to make the bayberry scented candles that are burned around Christmas. I can't pass by the stand without rubbing the leaves and smelling it.

They aren't large plants but to get berries you need both male and female plants. Most nurseries only sell unsexed plants but I found one that sells males and females. I'm trying to find my links to who that was. Bayberry will grow in the shade and isn't fussy about soil although it does like soil on the acidic side and sandy or well-drained.

I really wish I had a place to plant this. It would be so nice to have that scent in my yard.

Velnita - I like the look of all of Clethra in the pictures that you posted, now how am I going to decide which one to get :-) You said that they all have fragrance - is there one variety in particular that is your favorite? Maybe that will help narrow down my decision!

As a side note, I'll keep editing the consolidated list post at the top of the thread to capture any of the new items being suggested.

(grins) Why not one of each? If I HAD to choose one over the others, it would be very difficult. The Sixteen candles is the smallest and will mature at only about 3'W by 2.5'H. It's great for me as a foundation plant. The Hummingbird has nice curvy flowers and only gets a little bigger even though it is currently taller than it is wide. September Beauty has straighter flowers but it blooms for such a long time. It bloomed for almost a month last year. Sherry Sue doesn't have as many flowers and is more open but the color of the bark is really nice. Last year, the order for bloom times were Hummingbird, Sixteen candles, September beauty, then Sherry Sue--but I'm not sure if the amount of sun that they get had something to do with it. They're all easy to grow and they all smell wonderful. Diseases and bad bugs don't seem to bother them. I don't need to acidify my soil for them like I do for my calycanthus. They all leaf out a little later than other plants in the spring. Their autumn color is okay--not good but not bad either. The leaves turn yellow.

This probably wasn't much help for you. There must be someone else on here that has clethras since they are very fragrant. Or perhaps the folks over on the trees and shrubs forum grow them.

Another plant that likes shade is Itea. I have the cultivar named Henry's Garnet. The scent is light but the flowers are nice and the leaves are like a burgundy in autumn. The branches are very nice in winter (picture below of branches taken last week). I would love to add the cultivar Saturnalia. I think there are nice pictures in the plant files of the autumn colors of both of these. The scent is light but these plants have many other great qualities.

Another bush I added last year was Fothergilla 'Mount Airy'. It needs sun but it's a very nice plant. It has bottle brush flowers in the spring that have a light honey scent and beautiful autumn colors. There are pictures in plant files that show the autumn colors.

This message was edited Mar 3, 2009 10:15 AM

I have another fragrant shade plant bookmarked that I'd love to have but can't have yet because I don't have enough shade yet. They are supposed to be very fragrant but are small (which means they can be tucked in here and there). It is a perennial rather than a bush but it looks nice and is supposed to be very fragrant.
Corydalis flexuosa 'Blue Panda' and 'Purple Leaf'.

LOL, hang in there Happy, it won't be long before everything is popping up green!

Velnita, I love Clethra and your photos are beautiful :) We planted Sherry Sue and Ruby Spice last year and I can't wait for their fragrant blooms this year! Another of the Clethras I love is C. barbinervis http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1689/. We had one we planted years ago and was the most beautiful 5' tree. "Was" being the key word here - not sure why but after the first few years it began suffer, continued going downhill and finally painfully cut it down last summer :( I also planted a variegated one a couple of years ago and lost that one when we experienced severe drought - they really prefer moist soils and the hose wouldn't reach that far. I haven't given up yet though, if I can find another one I'm going to try one more time!

If you decide to plant a Corydalis - look for 'Blackberry Wine' http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/76485/. I really like the blue flowering Corydalis and especially the dark foliage of 'Purple Leaf' but alas by mid summer here they melt away and leave a bare spot in the gardens. However, 'Blackberry Wine' keeps on ticking all summer and if you cut it back after flowering in the spring, it will usually rebloom when the cooler temperatures arrive in fall! I planted the gold leaf form of 'Blackberry Wine' - 'Berry Exciting' http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/158557 last year and although it drooped when I forgot to water the area, it was still trying to send out a few blooms when I took this picture in late September!

Has anyone tried Sweet Box (Sarcocca confusa)? http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/81925/ I read about the wonderful fragrance of Sweet Box in late winter/early spring, evergreen foliage and its ability to bloom in the shade so have some to try in the gardens. I've read differing reports of its hardiness, Dirr says no colder than 6b :( We've just experienced a brutally cold winter although actually a "normal" winter for us but after being spoiled with the recent warm winters I hope I'm not making a mistake "testing" it.

Yippeee Debbie found my favorite forum...ok, except Mid Atlantic...gotta be true to my homies.

I still have 2 Sweet Boxes - they're sadly in the back yard so I tend to miss the scent (if any blooms) each year..these are still young'uns. Any suggestions for growth, Debbie or are they simply slow growers?

I'd follow you anywhere :) LOL I'll have to remember to plant them close enough to catch the fragrance. They're supposed to start blooming in late February? and I usually don't wander that far into the gardens at that time of the year. Not sure what to tell you about their growth, it's the first time I've ever grown it. It was recommended by someone from the west coast but it probably grows a lot faster out there! If I find anything out about its growth, fast or slow, you'll be the first to know :)

Course now I'll need to go out back and sniff - great, that's also where the dogs do their "business" - LOL maybe THAT'S why I've not caught the Sweet Box scent...so sad...really, really sad...

Debbie, I had placed a mail order for that corydalis 'blackberry wine' earlier in the year. It caught my attention with the description and pictures - I didn't realize it is fragrant to boot! What a bonus - what is the fragrance like?

Chantell, maybe you're not catching the scent of the Sweet Box because of the dog's "business", but maybe you're also not catching the scent of the dog's "business" because of the Sweet Box LOL!

LOL, my "scentiments" exactly!

Terri, the 'Blackberry Wine' is definitely fragrant but you'll have to get down on your hands and knees to appreciate it! The only reason I became aware of how fragrant they are was they were growing on a table one spring and when I walked by I smelled this wonderful sweet scent and had to investigate to find out what it was - similar to a faint smell of Lilacs :) When it blooms for you, give it a 'haircut' because it tends to get floppy after blooming. Cut it down to about 2"-3" and it will spring back to life within a few weeks and you'll be rewarded with more blooms later in the year :)

This message was edited Mar 11, 2009 6:51 AM