Day 247: Sweetfern (Comptonia peregrina, aka Spicebush) is not native to the Pacific Northwest. Neither are Japanese Maple, Hydrangea, Euonymus nor a host of other shrubs you may find in our gardens. Comptonia grows wild in the hills of the east coast. My particular specimen followed me home from Maine where it grew leggy with long stretches of stem showing through sparse leaves. In my garden, it is a bush, a green mound of fragrant foliage which I keep carefully maintained to prevent it from spreading in the manner of its kind. It is notorious for sending out underground runners which may pop up ten feet away from the parent stock. However, my plant does not seem to propagate by seed even though it forms soft, spiny nutlets, giving rise to my affectionate nickname for it: Fuzz-nuts. Although my specimen is much bushier than its Maine cousins, the lushness of its foliage is not its main attraction. It is the sweet, spicy scent. The foliage is very aromatic, and the slightest brush against it releases the volatile oils responsible for its fragrance. That said, if cut and brought into the house, the scent is short-lived. Still, if you prune the plant to manage its form, those cut branches will look lovely on your mantelpiece even if they only do give you a few hours of olfactory pleasure.
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