October 12, 2009

Making friends with Michelia

Michelia might be the most nondescript shrub in my landscape. Planted near the bedroom sliding door, it doesn’t look like much - a privet at best.

But Michelia is not about looks baby—its all about bananas. In spring and summer when it blooms the entire backyard takes on a vanilla-ish banana aroma that literally makes my stomach growl if I’m hungry.

Michelia is a distant cousin of magnolia. Michelia figo smells like bananas, the flowers nearly hidden. Michelia champaca is a bit more ganglier, a bit more tropical and even more perfumed.

And this newbie from Monrovia sports larger, pink flowers and the heavy scents that all Michelias are known for.

Plant them near the house, below a window, by the door. Easy care for zones 8-11

whatever
Daily Gazette —A “human shrub” lobbies Parliament for more green areas in new building projects and calls attention to declining bee populations. Letters to Buckingham Palace have been answered.