
A few online references claim that the Chilean and Argentinian box-leaf azara has vanilla-scented flowers. I think they smell more like chocolate, myself. If I am giving a tour at this time of year, this is one plant that is on the must-visit list. The striking thing about the fragrance is that you don't have to be close to the plant to enjoy it – the smell of chocolate (or vanilla) can be discerned from 10m away if you are downwind from it. It certainly makes it pleasurable to photograph other plants in its vicinity.
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I love azaras; I just wish they were a bit hardier. I've lost a couple of species from cold temperatures. One of my favourites is Azara serrata, which is grown not for fragrance, but for its wonderful flowers. These are produced in tight, bushy clusters on the uppersides of the branches like so many golden woolly bear caterpillars. The first time I saw this plant in bloom (against an east facing brick wall at Great Dixter, in southern England) the colour reminded me of Berberis darwinii flowers. A slightly hardier species (at least for me in New Westminster, near Vancouver) with similar flowers, but produced in less elongated clusters, is A. dentata. I planted this species at the nextdoor neighbours', having run out of room for 2 to 3 m tall spreading evergreen shrubs, myself. Every year they go on an exotic vacation in late April and miss the show (which I rave about when they return).
Azara microphylla - Z8 - RHS Index of Garden Plants, Griffiths
Azara microphylla - Z8-10 - A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants,Brickell, Cole, Zuk
Agi,
Te invit la gradina botanica din...(te las sa descoperi).
Sper sa-ti placa !
Dragos
I hope I translated your Romanian correctly, Dragos. If so, thanks for your kind words.
40ft tall in the Seattle arboretum. An old one in the UW Frendship Grove 25ft x 2ft 5in (2006) greatly predates multiple others 20ft or more tall seen here and there from Seattle streets. Like gums (eucalypts) these are planted and shoot up quickly between hard winters, only to be zapped eventually - the few old veterans like the UW Friendship Grove specimen being exceptional.
For specific locations of existing large examples see Jacobson, TREES OF SEATTLE - SECOND EDITION.