On one of the unseasonally sunny days over the New Year, I found a friend standing in my garden with a beatific smile on her face.
Delightfully delicate: Daphne bholua
She was transfixed, she said, by a delicious lily-like scent but couldn't imagine where it could be coming from at this time of the year. When I pointed out the sarcococca in the corner, she could hardly believe that such a strong heady fragrance could be coming from this small unassuming plant.
Sarcococca confusa is an evergreen bush with tiny tatters of white flowers that are really no more than a cluster of anthers hanging close to the stem. The pleasures it packs are olfactory, rather than visual, as is the case with many other flowers that bloom so heroically in these bleakest months of the year.
Sarcococca hookeriana is even more fragrant, and therefore more widespread, but its pink-tinged flowers are, to me, somewhat untidy, lacking the purity of S. confusa.
All sarcococcas grow well in shade, but they need to be kept moist. If your soil is too dry, try it in a large container by the kitchen door, where its scent can be appreciated and any waste vegetable water and so on can be put to good use.
Delightfully delicate: Daphne bholua
She was transfixed, she said, by a delicious lily-like scent but couldn't imagine where it could be coming from at this time of the year. When I pointed out the sarcococca in the corner, she could hardly believe that such a strong heady fragrance could be coming from this small unassuming plant.
Sarcococca confusa is an evergreen bush with tiny tatters of white flowers that are really no more than a cluster of anthers hanging close to the stem. The pleasures it packs are olfactory, rather than visual, as is the case with many other flowers that bloom so heroically in these bleakest months of the year.
Sarcococca hookeriana is even more fragrant, and therefore more widespread, but its pink-tinged flowers are, to me, somewhat untidy, lacking the purity of S. confusa.
All sarcococcas grow well in shade, but they need to be kept moist. If your soil is too dry, try it in a large container by the kitchen door, where its scent can be appreciated and any waste vegetable water and so on can be put to good use.
Another lovely wintry plant whose scent is far stronger than the size of its flowers would suggest is the winter-flowering honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima. This small twiggy shrub, with its delicate cream and white flowers, bears little physical resemblance to the climbing honeysuckles that are so popular in summer gardens.
But its perfume is wonderfully penetrating - just a few sprigs in a vase will scent an entire room and give a fillip to the spirits. I planted one beside the gate of our seaside house a few years ago, and what was little more than a twig in a pot has grown and flourished into a five-foot bush that I plan to prune and train around an arch across the entrance. (I've since learned that what I really should have planted is L. x purpusii 'Winter Beauty', which has an even stronger scent and a longer flowering period, from early December through till April.)
The downside of many of these winter beauties is that they are dead dull during the remaining months of the year, but the branches can easily play host to attractive scented climbers.
With a white Rosa rugosa on the other side of the arch and a summer jasmine scrambling overhead, it is my aim to welcome visitors with scented flowers all year round. Another unassuming favourite I planted at the same time has so far proved less of a success.
Wintersweet, or Chimonanthus praecox, has waxy, almost transparent flowers the colour of church candles and a perfume just like nectar. I fell in love with it in Cambridge University Botanic Garden when I was a student, and vowed to have it in my own garden one day.
There, wintersweet is placed in an island border, where the low morning and afternoon sun can illuminate the maroon-centred blooms like parchment from either side, and I tried to emulate this effect by planting it as part of an east-west-running hedge.
The trouble is, that though wintersweet prefers a sheltered spot, it needs the sun to penetrate and ripen the wood in summer in order to flower well, and by the summer my plant is somewhat swamped by its neighbours. Perhaps it's just a matter of patience, though.
Wintersweet is a notoriously slow grower, only flowering after several years' growth, but it is well worth the wait. I long for the day when I can wander outside and pick scented sprays to bring inside where the added warmth brings out the flowers' fragrance.
Last but not least when it comes to small winter flowers with show-stopping scent are the Daphnes. My favourite is the deciduous D.mezereum, whose bare branches are clothed in clusters of tiny four-petalled mauve stars from late winter to early spring - D. m. 'Bowles Variety' has pretty white flowers.
Of the other daphnes such as D.bholua and evergreen D. odora, many have a tricky reputation and must be placed in well-drained soil in a sheltered spot that receives some winter sun in order to be given a good chance. The greenish-yellow flowered D. laureola is frost-tolerant and rather interesting, while the popular D. odora 'Aureomarginata' has a cream-coloured edge to its evergreen leaves.
Again, Daphnes are good candidates for pots near doorways, provided the soil is well-drained but not allowed completely to dry out. When the flowers are over, feed for a few weeks with a good liquid fertilizer and move to a less prominent spot until next winter's brief moment of fragrant glory.
Tours offer
Readers dreaming of spring and summer can earn a discount on garden tours with two leaders in the field, by signing up within the next month.
Garden designer Karen Platt's tours for 2008 range from visits to some of Britain's best-loved gardens and flower shows, including Chelsea, to the horticultural highlights of Rome, Marrakech and Thailand, and also include a practical learning element.
She is offering 10 per cent off bookings made before 15 Feb. For more information see http://www.karenplatt.co.uk/ or call 0114 268 1700, quoting this offer.
Boxwood Tours, whose well-established garden tours are led by experts, are offering readers booking by that date £100 off trips this year to gardens in the heart of Spain, Calvados and the Cotentin Peninsula.
But its perfume is wonderfully penetrating - just a few sprigs in a vase will scent an entire room and give a fillip to the spirits. I planted one beside the gate of our seaside house a few years ago, and what was little more than a twig in a pot has grown and flourished into a five-foot bush that I plan to prune and train around an arch across the entrance. (I've since learned that what I really should have planted is L. x purpusii 'Winter Beauty', which has an even stronger scent and a longer flowering period, from early December through till April.)
The downside of many of these winter beauties is that they are dead dull during the remaining months of the year, but the branches can easily play host to attractive scented climbers.
With a white Rosa rugosa on the other side of the arch and a summer jasmine scrambling overhead, it is my aim to welcome visitors with scented flowers all year round. Another unassuming favourite I planted at the same time has so far proved less of a success.
Wintersweet, or Chimonanthus praecox, has waxy, almost transparent flowers the colour of church candles and a perfume just like nectar. I fell in love with it in Cambridge University Botanic Garden when I was a student, and vowed to have it in my own garden one day.
There, wintersweet is placed in an island border, where the low morning and afternoon sun can illuminate the maroon-centred blooms like parchment from either side, and I tried to emulate this effect by planting it as part of an east-west-running hedge.
The trouble is, that though wintersweet prefers a sheltered spot, it needs the sun to penetrate and ripen the wood in summer in order to flower well, and by the summer my plant is somewhat swamped by its neighbours. Perhaps it's just a matter of patience, though.
Wintersweet is a notoriously slow grower, only flowering after several years' growth, but it is well worth the wait. I long for the day when I can wander outside and pick scented sprays to bring inside where the added warmth brings out the flowers' fragrance.
Last but not least when it comes to small winter flowers with show-stopping scent are the Daphnes. My favourite is the deciduous D.mezereum, whose bare branches are clothed in clusters of tiny four-petalled mauve stars from late winter to early spring - D. m. 'Bowles Variety' has pretty white flowers.
Of the other daphnes such as D.bholua and evergreen D. odora, many have a tricky reputation and must be placed in well-drained soil in a sheltered spot that receives some winter sun in order to be given a good chance. The greenish-yellow flowered D. laureola is frost-tolerant and rather interesting, while the popular D. odora 'Aureomarginata' has a cream-coloured edge to its evergreen leaves.
Again, Daphnes are good candidates for pots near doorways, provided the soil is well-drained but not allowed completely to dry out. When the flowers are over, feed for a few weeks with a good liquid fertilizer and move to a less prominent spot until next winter's brief moment of fragrant glory.
Tours offer
Readers dreaming of spring and summer can earn a discount on garden tours with two leaders in the field, by signing up within the next month.
Garden designer Karen Platt's tours for 2008 range from visits to some of Britain's best-loved gardens and flower shows, including Chelsea, to the horticultural highlights of Rome, Marrakech and Thailand, and also include a practical learning element.
She is offering 10 per cent off bookings made before 15 Feb. For more information see http://www.karenplatt.co.uk/ or call 0114 268 1700, quoting this offer.
Boxwood Tours, whose well-established garden tours are led by experts, are offering readers booking by that date £100 off trips this year to gardens in the heart of Spain, Calvados and the Cotentin Peninsula.
