Merry Christmas! May your holiday be peaceful, happy and memorable.
Few of us are thinking much about our gardens in these busy days, though if you have a greenhouse or have houseplants there will be things to check. But there are always a few plants in the garden that offer some colour and fragrance and winter-flowering plants, which are so often fragrant, are among my all-year favourites. You may have them in the garden already but perhaps you need to add them to your plot. If you have some Christmas money or vouchers, consider adding these fragrant plants that make winter special, and are calorie-free treats to buy after Christmas.
Daphne
Daphnes have a reputation of being rather tricky and certainly not plants for the beginner gardener. But times change and so do plants.
New introductions have made daphnes a real possibility for almost every garden and gardener. In summer, ‘Eternal Fragrance’ will bring come colour and scent for many months – in fact mine is still in bloom and has been since April. But I am focussing on winter flowers so I will start with ‘Perfume Princess‘. (top photo)
This amazing hybrid, raised in New Zealand is, in my opinion, one of the best new shrubs to be introduced this century. It is a hybrid of the slightly tender Daphne odora and taller Daphne bholua. It has larger flowers than either, is evergreen and compact and the perfume is amazing. What is remarkable is just how many flowers it produces, not just at the shoot tips but along the stems. My own plant had a tricky start, being planted in rather wet soil. It was not happy and I moved it to a better spot where it is romping away. Most other daphnes would not tolerate such bad treatment. My own plant is in bloom now and will continue till April.
It is best in sun (providing the soil is not too baked in summer), or part shade. Because it is neat and evergreen it is also great for patio pots, planted in No 3 John Innes compost.
Daphne odora (above) has the most enticing scent of all. It has a reputation of being rather tender but it will tolerate -5c without a problem. It is best in a sheltered, sunny spot and often flowers at its best against a sunny wall. It has rather angular growth and is evergreen in most winters, the clusters of white flowers opening from March onwards from deep pink buds. The scent is sweet with a hint of citrus and a real pick-me-up on a cold day.
The queen of daphnes is Daphne bholua, a gem from the Himalayas that is currently enormously popular. It is one of the few shrubs that I would hate to be without, and my current plant has reached just over 1m high in three years. In my last garden my plant reached 2m high and was a joy from January to April, covered in blooms. That plant suddenly died, just at its peak, but that is what daphnes sometimes do! But for ten years it brightened up every day when I passed by in winter.
This is a notoriously difficult plant to propagate so is never cheap. But it is worth every penny. It is best in a semi-shady spot or in sun with protection from extreme heat. A humus-rich soil is best and you should avoid a spot that is waterlogged in winter. It is the tallest and least dense of the three.
Viburnums
Every garden needs a few viburnums and they are a varied bunch. I think there are two that deserve a spot in every garden. I used to be rather disdainful of Viburnum tinus, partly because it is so common. Also, although it flowers in winter, unlike all the other plants in this blog, it does not have a pleasant scent – in fact I think it smells like wet dogs.
But it is a tough plant, will grow in sun or part shade, is convincingly evergreen and can be clipped into a hedge if you wish. The red flower buds form in autumn and are usually attractive and the white flowers open all winter into spring. If you are very fortunate it might produce metallic blue berries too. Overall it is a very useful shrub.
My favourite viburnum for winter, and a shrub that I think should be in every garden, is Viburnum ‘Dawn’. This hardy shrub loses its leaves in winter but that shows off the scented, pink flowers to perfection. The flowers open in clusters from November to March, depending on the weather. Severe frost will damage the open blooms but not the buds so the display goes on for months. If winter is cold, the buds may stay closed till spring when there is an especially showy display.
It grows best in sun or part shade and is slim and upright when young, broadening with age, and the summer foliage is neat and attractive.
Wintersweet
While viburnum ‘Dawn’ will be happy almost anywhere, my last choice, Chimonanthus fragrans (wintersweet) flowers best in a sunny, warm spot and is often grown against a sunny wall. It has rough-textured, rather long leaves in summer and is not a great beauty. But all is forgiven in winter when the brown flower buds open to translucent, straw yellow bells that produce the most beautiful of all the scents of the year; sweet and spicy.
It is a very choice shrub and not commonly seen. I am using my Christmas money to get one. The last one I owned was cut down every winter because dad thought it was a fuchsia – don’t do that if you want flowers!