Yellow fall color. Fast growing? Other sources say they are slow growing. They need moisture and part shade to do well.
Spicebush flowers before leaves come out, in a yellow “haze” in late March.
The flowers are subtle and brief in the early spring, but very pretty. All summer it is a background shrub, not very noticeable, until October when it turns beautiful clear yellow.
Spicebush is dioecious, meaning I need males and females to get red berries in the fall. I have never seen berries on any of the lindera I planted, so apparently I have all of one kind.
The leaves do have a spicy scent when touched.
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| October 15, 2011 |
Flowering is so subtle and brief, but spicebush is covered in little yellow jewels in late April.
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| Starting to bloom March 24, 2012 |
Fall color is always bright yellow.
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| 10/15/12 |
Here is a mature spicebush we saw in the woods at Cornell Plantation. It has clearly never been pruned and was very large and horizontal. I love the wide spreading natural look, but mine will need to be kept narrower and smaller to fit the area on the spruce berm.
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| 10/20/12 at Cornell Plantations |
I have been pruning mine; they will need quite a bit of shaping to stay in this spot. They lean out away from the center of the berm.
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| 10/3/13 |
In late 2014 two of the original five spruce trees on the right side of the berm were taken out, so these spicebushes have enough room now finally to spread gracefully and branch out. I added more to make a woodsy "grove" of spicebush in this now empty half of the berm.
My plan for this empty part of the berm is to create a spicebush grove. I planted four more tiny shrubs in the open area, and they will grow into and merge with the two bigger spicebushes already there, making a large stand, or thicket, of Lindera benzoin.
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| 5/13/15 |
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| 10/18/16 |
