Unlike the showy bearded irises that swept Victorian horticulture
giving a light
bound for the gardens of the European elite
feeding the hive and setting the stage for the female shrubs to fruit
The plant takes happily to rain gardens
Styrax obassia Medicinal Unlike the showy bearded irisesStyrax obassia, the fragrant snowbell, is the bold leaved cousin of the more familiar Japanese snowbell, a small deciduous tree from the mountain woodlands of Japan, Korea, and China. Where Styrax japonicus hides small bells beneath fine, layered branches, the fragrant snowbell wears large, rounded, almost tropical leaves up to eight inches across, and hangs long, drooping chains of white, bell shaped flowers that carry a sweet perfume through the