Propagating Sweet Shrub (Carolina Allspice)

[Sid Starliper]

Please allow me to share my story about the sweetshrub plant and my mother. My mom passed away in 1950 when I was only 9 years old.Her home place has almost completely fallen down. I was visiting there 3 months ago walking the brush and thickets when I saw these beautiful sweet smelling flowers on this bush very close to the basement door. Two weeks later I was talking to my cousin in Canada, she was telling me about my mom and her sisters putting a small flower in there hanky then they would squeeze it and put in there pocket. I was blown away because she didn't know I was there. I had to go back and get a piece with roots, it is now growing in my back yard. I can touch the plant that my mother used, it is priceless. Thanks Sid

 

[catjac1975]

Please allow me to share my story about the sweetshrub plant and my mother. My mom passed away in 1950 when I was only 9 years old.Her home place has almost completely fallen down. I was visiting there 3 months ago walking the brush and thickets when I saw these beautiful sweet smelling flowers on this bush very close to the basement door. Two weeks later I was talking to my cousin in Canada, she was telling me about my mom and her sisters putting a small flower in there hanky then they would squeeze it and put in there pocket. I was blown away because she didn't know I was there. I had to go back and get a piece with roots, it is now growing in my back yard. I can touch the plant that my mother used, it is priceless. Thanks Sid

Such a wonderful remembrance.

 

[journey11]

Please allow me to share my story about the sweetshrub plant and my mother. My mom passed away in 1950 when I was only 9 years old.Her home place has almost completely fallen down. I was visiting there 3 months ago walking the brush and thickets when I saw these beautiful sweet smelling flowers on this bush very close to the basement door. Two weeks later I was talking to my cousin in Canada, she was telling me about my mom and her sisters putting a small flower in there hanky then they would squeeze it and put in there pocket. I was blown away because she didn't know I was there. I had to go back and get a piece with roots, it is now growing in my back yard. I can touch the plant that my mother used, it is priceless. Thanks Sid

That's a beautful story, Sid. I love how plants can help connect us with our own "roots". So you were able to dig a shoot, sort of like you get from the base of a lilac? I never did attempt a cutting. But I will have to get a start soon, as we will be selling my dad's farm. The sweet shrub there was planted by his great-grandmother.

 

[digitS']

DW says that I should take out a couple of foxglove volunteers. There is just too much shade there. Besides, there are foxglove elsewhere.

My first experience in a garden, a part of my first memories, is associated with foxglove. A 3 year-old has a unique perspective on those tall flowers, taller than he is. I must have had some ideas about foxes, also. There was a story about the fox and the grapes ... Gloves?

It was all in my grandmother's California garden, a place where I could nearly lose myself, except all paths led back to the house.

I visited my grandmother's Canadian garden in Hope, B.C. which predated her move to California. It had remained untended since shortly after WW2 and was in the shape of a V for victory. I had become an adult by then, in the 1960's.

Foxglove volunteers still grew there. digitalis

 

[thistlebloom]

Thank you for sharing that @Sid Starliper , that's a sweet memory with a tangible memento.

@digitS' , I have a special fondness for foxgloves also. Mom loved them and would let them volunteer everywhere.
I remember her calling me when they found their retirement property on the N. Ca. coast. She was so happy because the foxgloves in the nearby forest were as tall as her.
I think she also got her affection for them from her grandmas garden.

 

[Nyboy]

Because my father still lives in the house his parents built I have several plants that are connected to my grandmother