This handsome shrub, native to the southeastern United States, was introduced in 1726. Its other common names include: Bubby Flower, Carolina Allspice, Sweet Betsy, and Strawberry Bush, in reference to the flowers’ strawberry-like fragrance. Thomas Jefferson first recorded planting “19 Bubby flower shrubs, calycanthus” at Monticello March 7, 1778. The plants, thought to be rare in Virginia, had been collected from the Green Mountains in southwestern Albemarle County. He went on to write: “they are said to be very common in So. Carolina.” He planted more in 1794, 1812, and 1815, and shipped plants as gifts to Madame de Tessé in Paris.
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