Lindera Species, Narrow-Leaved Spicebush, Oriental Spicebush, Oriental Spice Bush

An extraordinary garden plant, and rare in North America.

Spectacular fall color over a long season, yellow/orange/scarlet...Read More, eventually fading to a warm pinkish buff. The leaves have good substance and hold in excellent condition all winter---small branches would make good subjects for winter arrangements---till in April they all drop off over a 24-hour period.

We usually think of using evergreens for year-round screening, but this deciduous species is a great year-round screen in a lighter color, without the lugubrious dark green of the usual evergreens.

Fast-growing, clean foliage, with no pests or diseases. The fragrant leaves are deer-resistant, and smell like bay leaves or sassafras when crushed.

Hardy in Z6a with no winter dieback over 20 years. Almost certainly hardy into Z5.

Requires full sun. Will grow in partial shade, but leans strongly towards the sun, and in shade the fall color is yellow.

Does not respond well to pruning. It will not regrow from heading cuts, and if you try to shear it into a meatball it will never recover. Treat this like a lilac.

The small spring flowers are yellow but not very showy.

This species is dioeceous---plants have either all female or all male flowers. I see fruits on these, but I've never seen a seedling. This is a great doer in the garden but it's difficult to propagate. There is zero chance of its becoming invasive.

AKA Lindera glauca var. angustifolia, Lindera salicifolia

It is a pretty shrub with a very interesting texture. It bears black, round "berries" in late summer and fall. It should get a good yello...Read Morew fall color. The foliage does often hang on gray-brown in the winter. From East Asia. I have only seen some plants in a parking lot island in part-shade at Longwood Gardens in se PA. I don't want to see any birds or other wildlife eat the fruit and spread another East Asian plant into eastern North America. If it and other Eurasian ornamentals stay put in cultivated areas, that is good.