Currently 40cms tall. Dating back thousands of years to its native land Sri Lanka, few trees in the landscape have the wonderful, aromatic attributes of cinnamon.  The cinnamon is a beautiful ornamental tree with glossy green leaves and attractive red new growth. More importantly, it is the source of cinnamon spice. The spice is obtained from the bark that is peeled from the branches.

To harvest the cinnamon bark, the central trunk is cut-back (coppiced) to encourage multi-trunks and side branches.  This technique causes it to grow like a bush, with new shoots emerging out of the sides by the following year. It’s these shoots that are used to make cinnamon. Once cut, the shoots are stripped of their inner bark and the peels are set out to dry in the sun. As this happens, the bark naturally curls into quills (sticks).  After scraping the bark, it is left to dry so that it curls into cinnamon sticks.  

Cinnamon trees require very well-drained soil and will grow in full sun or dappled shade. If there is any chance of the soil being poorly drained it is best to grow the trees on a raised mound of sandy loam soil.

The need to be protected from frost.  Trees can grow to 10-15m but are usually pruned to maintain a height of around 3m.

They can be grown in large pots and also make an excellent indoor plant.