November 9th, 2025Beetham’s Botanicals

Well here I am penning another column for you, the reader, to enjoy...

Well here I am penning another column for you, the reader, to enjoy…
This time I’ll be featuring trees and shrubs with scented foliage and/or flowers.
Quite a lot to choose from but I hope the selection below shows a broad range from Australian natives to exotics.
And I thought I’d mention here that I have not included perennials (think aromatic herbs) and bulbs (think daffs, jonquils and lilies). These plants represent a cornucopia of olfactory moments from our childhoods, a bit too verbose I know, but after many drives past the Golden Mile on the approach to Kyneton, that drift of daffs is worth a stop to get close and have a good sniff.

1. So let’s start with one of my favourite mock oranges, philadelphus ‘belle etoile’, a multi-caned deciduous shrub to 2m or more that symbolises fragrant blooms and will flower comfortably in dappled light. Like all philadelphus taxa, consider pruning out old wood now and then to allow new canes to form.

2. Backhousia citriodora (lemon-scented myrtle) is a slender-growing Australian native evergreen tree that may achieve 10m or more in cultivation. Although native to coastal forests of Queensland from Brissie to Mackay, this wonderful aromatic foliaged tree seems highly adaptable to all sorts of climate conditions, now and for the future. It is named after John Backhouse, a nurseryman, plant collector and Quaker missionary – what a combo. As a small anecdotal aside, there is a specimen of this tree just inside the Neerib Gates at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne where on most of my return visits over 40 years I pinch a leaf and later scrunch it up under my wife’s nose to inhale that amazing citrus smell.

3. Illicium anisatum (star anise) is a medium-sized shrub to 2m and hails from Japan and South Korea and its intensely fragrant, crushed leaves are reminiscent of those aniseed balls we all – well, us older folk anyway – used to buy at the local store. I remember that you could get four small ones or later on, two large ones. Originally black coated, you would suck the living daylights out of them reducing them to a washed-out white globe. This unusual plant is worth tracking down but just give it some protection from the arvo sun.

4. Hymenosporum flavum (native frangipani) is an Aussie native evergreen tree that is seriously overlooked when planning a sensory garden for a public display or in you, the reader’s, private oasis. Growing naturally in eastern NSW and Queensland, it forms an upright tree that produces an array of different, super-fragrant, coloured flowers that range from creamy-green upon opening to canary-yellow as they mature. Its slender habit and eventual height of 12m odd in cultivation make it a great selection for a corner position in the landscape.

5. Edgeworthia chrysantha (oriental paper bush) is a small manageable shrub native to southern China and northern Myanmar that flowers in mid to late winter and offers lovely perfumed flowers.

And there it is, Cheers JB!

Next time: Special needs for special plants…