Pleasant surprises surround us everyday. While making a plant survey at a home in Forest Acres, I saw a delightful small waxy yellow flower with petals rimmed in burgundy on an evergreen shrub.
The upright multistemmed shrub stood alone in partial shade on the front corner of the house. When I smelled the blossoms, the name ‘banana shrub’ emerged from the depths of scented memories. Unopened blossoms are the shape of bananas, too.
Banana shrub, Michelia figo, is a miniature magnolia much smaller in stature and leaf and flower size when compared to its family of giants like Magnolia grandiflora. But its banana oil scent is no small feature and can permeate a garden.
The old-fashioned heirloom fragrant shrub was once widely used in Southern gardens as a hedge and in mixed borders or as a specimen plant growing on the corner of a house near a window or a porch where the fragrance could be appreciated from April through June.
Sir Joseph Banks, an English botanist, first intro- duced this Chinese native magnolia to the new world in 1789. In 1811 Landreth nursery in Philadelphia introduced the shrub to America in their catalog. Northern gardeners ordered it for indoor greenhouse culture whereas southern gardeners found it hardy outdoors. Banana shrub became a favorite antebellum garden plant. Legend records that Southern ladies warmed the blossoms in their handkerchiefs to retain the perfume.
The Chinese banana shrub was introduced to American gardens in 1811.
The late Mississippi garden writer Eudora Welty’s home garden plant palette in Jackson included the banana shrub as one of the first specimens grown there since the 1920s.
The glossy green leaved shrub reaches a mature height of six to eight feet, sometimes leaping to 15 feet. It grows well in sun or partial shade in an acidic sandy soil with added organic matter. The plant is trouble free except for occasional bouts of false oleander scale. Once established in the landscape, it is drought resistant.
According to University of Georgia horticulturist Michael Dirr, Michelia figo maintains a handsome appearance with heavy pruning; although, most gardeners choose to do only minor pruning.
‘Purple Queen’ is a cultivar of Michelia figo.
Just as neighbors once shared cuttings over the garden fence, so can you. Make tip cuttings in summer and fall. Dip the cutting in a rooting hormone powder or liquid, and prop the cutting in a moist soilless mix to propagate enough cuttings for a hedge or neighborhood plant sale.
It may be easier to acquire the banana shrub from local cuttings than from garden centers. Several online nurseries encourage gardeners to bring back the banana shrub: Nurseries Caroliniana in North Augusta, Woodlanders in Aiken, TyTy Nursery in Georgia, and Forest Farm in Oregon.
Newer cultivars have been developed. ‘Port Wine’ extends the maroon on the interior of petals. ‘Stubb’s Purple’ offers purple flowers. ‘Skinneriana’ was bred for cold hardiness and compact growth.
The fragrance of bananas permeates a garden.
Everyone has a corner of the house to bring back one of the most treasured of Southern fragrant woody ornamental landscape plants, the banana shrub.
The miniature magnol ia f lower is one inch across.
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