Requires a rich well composted lime-free soil in full sun or semi-shade. Succeeds in acid and neutral soils. Plants are not very hardy in Britain, requiring greenhouse treatment in most areas, but they succeed outdoors in a woodland garden in the milder areas of the country. Another report says that plants are fairly hardy when grown in a sheltered position. A tree at Edinburgh Botanical Gardens is 3 metres tall and flowers annually, whilst there are trees 6 metres tall in Cornwall. Plants can tolerate short-lived frosts to about -5°c if they are well sited and sheltered from cold drying winds. Plants come into flower when they are quite young. All parts of the plant are aromatic. The flowers diffuse a sweet perfume whilst the nuts have a musk-like fragrance similar to nutmegs. Dioecious, male and female plants must be grown if seed is required.

A pleasant tasting tea is made from the fresh or dried aromatic bark. Some caution is advised in its use, see the notes on toxicity at top of the page.

Seed - we have no details for this species but suggest sowing the seed in early spring in a warm greenhouse. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in the greenhouse for at least their first winter. Plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts. Cuttings of half-ripe wood, July/August in a frame.

Temperate rainforests and moist gullies up to the sub-alpine zone.