sweet betsy bush

[E5mom]

I have a 2 year old Sweet Betsy bush. The flowers do not have the sweet
characteristic smell. What do I need to do?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Sweet Betsy sounds like a cultivar name, is there any other name thatcame with it?

 

[Jay Banks]

I tried a search on Sweet Betsy no luck.

 

[John Paul McMillin]

The plant in question could be Carolina Allspice ( Calycanthus floridus ) It has a very sweet odor , but it varies by plant , so when buying a plant , smell it and make sure it has the scent you want . Its native habitat is from Virginia to Florida. John ps. i havent heard it called sweet betsy either , but it sounds like this plant.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Bingo! latin search turned up a cross refferance list with common name Sweet Betsy, Eastern Sweetshrub

http://search.dogpile.com/texis/search?q=Calycanthus+floridus+betsy&geo=no&fs=web

and the uconnpage too,
http://www.hort.uconn.edu/plants/c/calflo/calflo1.html

 

[Jay Banks]

That just proves two heads are better than one.

 

[John Paul McMillin]

The flower is very dark brown , so dark you hardly notice it but you can smell it when you walk by. Also has seed pods that persist into winter. The plant itself is not very showy but worth planting for the fragrance. Dirr describes the scent as a sweet strawberry-banana-pineapple odor. Also states that the bark was used a substitute for cinnamon.