One of the most outstanding groups of plants in the woodland gardens at Caerhays Castle and Burncoose Nurseries, in early June, are Calycanthus or allspices.

Those of you who visited the Chelsea Flower Show last month may well have seen the Calycanthus ‘Venus’ on the Burncoose stand. 

The story of the Calycanthus is that there is a Chinese species; Calycanthus chinensis and two American species; Calycanthus floridus and Calycanthus occidentalis. Plant breeders have crossed these two species to produce even more outstanding hybrids.