Daphne bholua

The scent is the first thing you notice on a still January day.  Powerful, sweet, it perfumes the air for yards around the source, a relatively unassuming evergreen shrub Daphne bholua. 

Best known for the cultivar 'Jacqueline Postill' (above) the plant is available in a number of forms, reflecting the variation in their natural range in the Himalayas in and around Nepal. Some forms appear to be hardier than others but the other three I'm illustrating here are all hardy in the edge of Dartmoor, Devon, garden, The Garden House.  Frost and snow may not be as frequent as further north but are frequent enough to test the hardiness of any plant.

So, pure white 'Alba' thrives on the edge of the birch wood at the far western end of the garden, scenting the approach to the Acer glade, while closer to the house 'Garden House Enchantress' (below) with a faint pink blush to the clusters of tubular flowers provides fragrance to the garden entry area.

Meanwhile the pinker 'Garden House Sentinel' (below) stands at the western end of the Wisteria bridge.  Now a substantial shrub the fragrance is delightful.

Hardy, relatively tolerant of any soil that remains moist but well drained these are superb shrubs for a sheltered position where the fragrance can linger on the winter air.  There is only one downside.  All parts of the plant are toxic if eaten and pruning does require gloves to avoid skin irritation.

Note:  This post has been edited to include the photo of 'Garden House Sentinel' and replace the photo of 'Jacqueline Postill'.

More winter scent

After writing about Sarcococca and it's penetrating winter scent yesterday I was reminded of another distinctive winter scent this morning.

As always, I had my dogs out for their early morning walk.  It's not that long, about 3 miles / 5 km for me, 2 - 3 times that for them.  Virtually all of it through local grass and woodland.  It was the sort of winter morning that we always wish for - but rarely get in our damp winters.  Dry, the sun just beginning to raise the temperature to melt off the tiny traces of overnight frost, hovering mist over the grassy areas with deeper clouds in the distant view of the Tamar, cool and fresh.  I like to vary the route and this morning I took one I hadn't gone down for a while.

The walk was nearly over when the scent hit me.  Winter heliotrope, Petasites fragrans.  Absolutely distinctive though difficult to describe.  A combination of almonds and vanilla is the best I can manage although if you've ever smelt any of the older, more heavily scented varieties of the heliotrope sold as summer bedding or container plants, Heliotropium arborescens, you'll know exactly what I mean.  I was at least 20 yards / metres from the plants, a good indication of the penetrating power of the fragrance.  All this from a head of whispy little flowers above carpets of quite attractive rounded leaves.

Petasites fragrans - Winter Heliotrope

This is not one for the garden.  Introduced to the UK from it's North African homeland it's an extremely persistent weed, regenerating from the tiniest bit of root and spreading to form large patches within a short time.  It's widespread in woods and hedgerows down here despite all the plants in the UK being male - an indication of it's spreading power and persistence.  The patch in my local wood probably came in with some rubble that was dumped where a building site once adjoined the area.

For all it's invasive habits I still welcome that sharp, distinctive winter scent.  Long may it refresh my winter walks - although if it gets too close I'm moving!

A winter scent

We're having a very mild early winter here in Plymouth.  OK its been cool and wet but we've had no significant frost so far.  Which means everything is ahead of schedule.  For the last two days it's been mild and still, perfect for my few scented winter flowerers to perfume the air.  Clematis cirrhosa 'Freckles' has a very mild scent that needs a good close up sniff for any impact.  Mahonia japonica has been flowering for a while now but is still giving off gentle wafts of sweet scent when I brush past it.  Even the winter flowering Iris, Iris unguicularis is producing the odd sweetly scented flower even though I'm sure it would prefer somewhere drier than my rather damp garden.  But the strongest of them all is the unassuming little winter box, Sarcococca confusa.

It's early this year.  Normally it flowers in February.  But, for the last two days I've been hit by a fabulous vanilla scent as I enter or leave the house by the front entrance.  The plant can be yards away from the point where the fragrance first hits but there is no mistaking the impact.  It will continue for three to four weeks, at its best on still days but still obvious even on our frequent windy ones.  Then it will go to sleep again for the rest of the year.

It's not a pretty plant.  Just a small, very hardy shrub with non-descript oval, evergreen leaves and a rather untidy habit that needs a good trim after flowering.  The flowers are small - whispy, white affairs.  It produces berries in abundance - small black ones that even the birds ignore - but these don't stand out as a decorative feature in their own right.  So, for eleven months of the year it's a bit of a waste of space.  But, oh, the scent as the year is turning more than justifies the space it occupies in my shady front garden.

Sarcococca confusa winter flowers

Sarcococca humilis and S.hookeriana are both very similar.  Frankly, it doesn't matter which one you choose, the results will be the same.  You only need one plant - and that can be hidden away in any shaded spot that's available.  Provided it's within scenting distance - and that can yards away.