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January’s plant spotlight is paperbush (Edgeworthia chrysantha)
WAYNE COUNTY, NC – Paperbush is a deciduous shrub that provides superb winter interest and fragrance. This well-branched plant begins blooming in December and continues through the late winter months. While the individual florets are tiny, they gather in several dozen clusters to create striking, golden-yellow flower heads that immediately catch the eye.
Paperbush is a deciduous shrub that provides superb winter interest and fragrance.
Image by Jim Robbins CC BY-NC-ND 4.0; https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu
You will often smell a Paperbush shrub before you see it; its fragrance is similar to a gardenia but with a spicier, more honeyed element. Be sure to snip a few blooms to keep your home fragrant through the season. It thrives in partial shade and prefers well-enriched, moist soil. During the rest of the year, the shrub maintains an attractive, rounded form with unique bluish-green foliage that turns rich shades of yellow in the autumn. Native to China and the Himalayas, this shrub typically reaches a mature size of 7 feet tall and wide.
Jessica Strickland is an Agriculture Extension Agent, specializing in horticulture for North Carolina Cooperative Extension in Wayne County.
