I never met a spice bush I didn't like. Easy to see why: The leaves reek of cinnamon and clove when crushed, so of course deer leave this shrub alone. And the flowers have a unique-in-hardy-plants fruity-banana fragrance. The American versions, and there are several, have small but profuse flowers for some weeks in Spring and into Summer; the unusually-long blooming season is reason enough to grow it right there. And they are all impressively, even scarily, shade-tolerant. More shade-tolerant even than yews, oh yes. And so I even plant spice bushes in Manhattan, in gardens surrounded by skyscrapers and shaded directly overhead by huge trees. So far so good, but then there's a Chinese cousin too. It was crossed with the American to create the pink-flowered beauty you see here, 'Hartlage Wine'. And this one is in one of my Manhattan client gardens, with scarcely any sun. And look how happy it is.
What you can't see is that it's already eight feet tall and only four years old. What a performer!
Yes yes, the flowers are pink. Unashamedly, excitedly, exuberantly. Fine: that's why I have two enormous Pink Borders. Hartlage Wine: come home to papa.