Growing Peanut Butter Shrub
Have you ever heard of a plant called the peanut butter plant? Supposedly, the leaves smell like peanut butter? My daughter-in-law received one from a lady that lived in Tennessee. Can you tell me more about the plant and offer any tips for how to find one?
Crush the leaves and you may crave a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The smell of peanut butter gave the harlequin glorybower (Clerodendrum trichotomum) its other common name. It prefers moist well-drained soils and full sun but will tolerate some shade. It has white tubular flowers in summer followed by a bright blue berry-like fruit. Some people love this plant and others find it a bit unkempt when not in bloom. Hardy in zones 6 to 9 it is treated like a sub shrub in the northern reaches of its hardiness. There the plants are cut back to 4 to 6 inches above the ground at the end of each winter. In warmer regions it can be grown as a shrub or trained into a tree form if the suckers are continuously removed.
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