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You say you're looking for a slow-growing, columnar tree with
a mature height of 20 feet or so? Look no further than the bay rum, a magical
charmer with healing properties.
Found throughout Tropical America
and the islands of the Caribbean, the leaves of this cousin of the Allspice
Pimenta dioica, have been used as a spice in cooking, as a
perfume, and as a liniment to ease muscle aches.
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Rub the leaves. The fragrance will linger with you all day,
like the perfume of your old aunt after she has squeezed you tight and given
you a big wet kiss on the cheek. As soon as she goes around the corner,
you can wipe a bay rum leaf over your cheek to replace her perfume with the
stimulating aroma of the bay rum. |
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Flowers resemble tiny bouquets of sparkly cotton candy.
They fill in the voids of fragrance left untouched by the leaves. |
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Suffice to say, you will be happy with Bay Rum, which will
never run out of fragrance, as long as you don't pull off all the leaves in
some kind of mad sniffing frenzy. |
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At right, a 24' high specimen. It was about six
feet high when it was planted in that spot twelve years ago. |
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We've got beautiful bay rums in 10-gal. (left), and in
20-gal. containers (both photos below). |
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