Bayberry bushes are ruffianly , brave plants that have enjoyably odoriferous foliage and berries . Colonial Americans used the berries to add fragrance to candles for use during special occasions such as Christmas , since collecting and rendering the Berry was a big job . Bayberry plant are native to the continental United States and arise vigorously along the eastern seashore and throughout the south . The Pacific Bayberry , also called the California Wax Myrtle , is aboriginal to Canada , Washington and Oregon . Bayberry bush are known by a variety of common names such as candleberry , tallow bush , waxberry and tallow berry , all of which seem to prove its Charles Frederick Worth as a plant wide used in candle making over the hundred .
Identification
A bayberry bushusually has an upright , rounded shape , but its aroma is in all probability its most identifiable feature of speech . It can grow to a tallness of five to eight foot , and has no central stem – it has many outgrowth instead that spread outward and upwards . Its oval leaf are dingy fleeceable , waxy and grow to a duration of one to four inch . Bayberry leaves are called " simple , " which means they do not have any parts or sections . They also alternate , in that they do not grow one leafage opposite across from the other , but alternately down a base . The President Bush are unremarkably evergreen but some species may lose some , but not all , of their leaves during the fall and winter . The female plants of many bayberry bush species create very small-scale , waxy , grey-headed - blue berries in the fall . Small , low blossom come along on the plants in the early saltation .
Habitat
Growing in poor , sandy or clay soil and in salty areas near the sea , bayberry bushes are fantastically liberal plant that can thrive in domain where many plants can not . Because of this , bayberry plants do n’t grow in particular well in rich , well - fertilize garden soils , though they seem to be industrial plant that enjoy extremes , as they also opt bogs , marshland and wet woodlands . They get in areas along roadsides , on moxie dunes near mid - Atlantic beaches and in old , abandoned fields .
Care, Cultivation and Propogation
Once establish , bayberry President Bush do well and can even be hard to tame . They tend to develop in groups and make fantabulous windbreaks and hedges . Bayberry bush are intolerant of other vegetation around them , so any plants that could be squeezed out by the vigorous , spread out bayberry should be moved or kept freestanding . The bushes prefer light , unimpregnated soil . As bayberry bushes age and grow bare at the base , they may require ruthless pruning of the principal branch in the bound . Each waxy yield of the wild cinnamon contains quite a act of seeds that can be planted to produce more bayberry plants . In parliamentary procedure for the source to germinate more chop-chop , the waxy coat needs to be grate off . However , in nature , the yield , waxy coating and all , drops to the undercoat and eventually germinate . Bayberry bushes can also be propagated by reduce or dividing smaller fool shoots .
Wildlife Appeal
Birds love the Chuck Berry of the bayberry bush . While not a bird ’s first berry choice because of the acerbic taste , the fruits of the bay-rum tree are an of import food source for biz birds like quail , pheasant and ruffed grouse , as well as migrating songbirds such as eastern fairy bluebird , thrushes , jaundiced - rumped warbler , tufted tit and some additional 80 varieties of birds . Because the berries remain on the Dubyuh over wintertime , they cater a source for nutrient when food is scarce . The George H.W. Bush also dish out as important asylum for nestle birds , grouse , deer and other wildlife .
Uses of Bayberry
While good for the raspberry , the fruits of the bayberry bush are not for human consumption . The interpret berries create sweet - perfumed candles , and fresh cut bough from the bayberry bush make redolent laurel wreath or swags for wintertime festivity . Historically , herbalists used the dried bayberry bark or the shrub ’s roots in concoction and infusions to treat a host of complaint from sore throat to infection . Modern herbalists still view the bayberry bush as having highly therapeutic properties .
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