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Noon Edition

Fragrant Shrubs

Cletra alnifolia shrub

If you yearn for more fragrance in your garden, here are some suggestions for ornamental sweetshrubs that you could plant this fall.

Calycanthus ‘Aphrodite' is a re-blooming sweetshrub that grows 5-6 feet high and as wide. It has bright pinky-red magnolia-type flowers in summer and early fall and glossy green foliage in zones 5 to 9.

Calycanthus ‘Venus' produces fragrant white flowers with yellow and purple markings and foliage that is glossy green but turns golden in autumn.

Clethra alnifolia is a summersweet shrub with a compact and mounded shape, and it produces 4- to 6-inch white flower spikes in summer and has golden fall foliage.

There are other Clethra varieties with lovely names, as well as fragrances too. How about Sugartina® ‘Crystallina'? It's the name of a small summersweet that grows only 2-3 feet tall. It's a native and a magnet for butterflies.

Another possibility is Vanilla Spice®, which has large white flowers and an intoxicating midsummer fragrance.

And how about a sweet-smelling lilac? There's one called ‘Tiny Dancer'™, which grows 4-5 feet high with exceptional heat tolerance and romantic old-fashioned blossoms.

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