Botanic Garden >> Gardening > >> Question and Answer >> About Gardening

Sweetshrub (Calycanthus floridus): Fragrant Native with Suckering Habit

Strap-like red flowers (sometimes fragrant, sometimes not), suckers aggressively. ‘Athens’ cultivar is reliably fragrant. Control spread with a machete or spade. Crushed leaves are aromatic. Buy in bloom to verify scent.

Sweetshrub habit Sweetshrub flower

About Gardening: Identifying a Mystery Pear Variety from Fruit and Seed; How to Get a Wildflower Identified from a Photograph; Native Prairie Wildflowers for a Sunny, Dry School Garden in New York; Carnivorous Plants Native to Oregon; Mystery Aroid: Anthurium, Aglaonema, or Dieffenbachia?; Sweetshrub Without Fragrance: Maybe It's the Variety; Millet in the Yard: Birdseed Volunteer; Spigelia (Indian Pink): Native Woodland Wildflower; Selaginella: The Charming Club Moss for Shady Groundcover; Identifying Volunteer Sorghum: Birdseed Escapee

Garden Articles

Identifying a Mysterious Office Plant: Could It Be a Croton?

Dracaena marginata ID and Low‑Light Adaptation

Sweetshrub Without Scent: It's Not You, It's the Plant

Finding Wild Elderberries: Join a Native Plant Rescue

North American Millipede: Harmless but Startlingly Large

Butterfly Identification Resources for Southeast Gardeners

Golden Larch vs. Common Larch: Clearing Up the Confusion

Plants

Society Garlic: Seed Collection and Deer Resistance

Lanceleaf Greenbriar: Thornless Vine with Edible Shoots

Barred Owl: The "Who Cooks for You?" Hunter

Bloody Dock (Rumex sanguineus): Ornamental or Invasive?

Creasy Greens: The Spring Tonic Wild Cress

Turtlehead (Chelone lyonii): Native Perennial for Damp Shade

Possum Grape (Ampelopsis cordata): Colorful Vine, Weedy Habit