Fragrant Spring Tree is a remarkable Chinese tree that rewrites what you can expect from a vegetable plant. Rather than growing it to full maturity at 30 feet, you harvest the tender new leaves continuously, which taste distinctly like leeks and excel in salads and stir fry. Hardy in zones 5 through 10 and thriving in full sun, this cultivar offers something genuinely unexpected: a tree-form vegetable that keeps producing if you stay on top of harvesting. The compound leaves are attractive enough that the plant earns its space as both food and ornament.
Full Sun
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5-10
360in H x ?in W
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High
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The leaves taste like leeks, making this Chinese native unlike any other vegetable plant most gardeners will grow. Rather than letting it mature to its full 30-foot potential, you deliberately keep it coppiced and harvest the tender new growth throughout the growing season. It blooms from April through October in ideal conditions, and the combination of edible foliage, ornamental compound leaves, and extended productivity makes it genuinely captivating to cultivate.
The tender new leaves are harvested and used fresh in salads or cooked in stir fries, taking on a leek-like flavor that adds umami and subtle onion notes to dishes. The leaves work anywhere you'd use mild alliums in raw or cooked preparations, making them flexible in Asian cuisine and contemporary vegetable cooking.
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Transplant the one-gallon nursery plant outdoors after the last frost date for your zone, positioning it in a location that receives full sun. Space with room for expansion, as the plant will grow substantially if left unpruned.
Harvest the tender new leaves as they emerge throughout the growing season, from spring through fall. Pick leaves when they are still young and tender, before they harden and mature. The younger the leaf, the more delicate the leek-like flavor and the better the texture for raw use in salads; slightly more mature leaves work well for stir frying and cooked applications.
Prune and harvest continuously throughout the growing season by cutting back new growth and removing tender leaves. This active management is essential to the cultivar's success, preventing the tree from maturing to its full height while maximizing leaf productivity. Regular harvesting stimulates fresh flushes of tender growth, keeping the plant in a perpetual state of young, harvestable foliage production.
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“This tree originates in China, where it has been valued for centuries as a food source. The practice of harvesting young leaves rather than allowing full tree development reflects a deep agricultural tradition of maximizing productivity while maintaining an ornamental presence. Its journey to Western gardens, represented by nurseries like Raintree, reflects growing interest in unusual edible plants and heritage food crops from Asia.”