Late Winter Pleasures...
There are many pleasures in late winter, but none to me so delicious as the scent of Sarcococcas or Winter Box as they are also called.
A Sarcococca planted in a protected spot near a path or gate ambushes passersby with clouds of ineffable sweetness.
This fairly small evergreen shrub is a quiet presence even in flower, so quiet that it’s easy to miss the source of its perfume.
The flowers, similar to those of Witch Hazel, are just little tufts of white stamens ranging along the stems beside each leaf. So small; so innocuous and packing such a wallop of scent! While it is in bloom it regularly stops me in my tracks…
There are many pleasures in late winter, but none to me so delicious as the scent of Sarcococcas or Winter Box as they are also called.
A Sarcococca planted in a protected spot near a path or gate ambushes passersby with clouds of ineffable sweetness.
This fairly small evergreen shrub is a quiet presence even in flower, so quiet that it’s easy to miss the source of its perfume.
The flowers, similar to those of Witch Hazel, are just little tufts of white stamens ranging along the stems beside each leaf. So small; so innocuous and packing such a wallop of scent! While it is in bloom it regularly stops me in my tracks…
“just what I want in that corner”
Last year we lost a mature Oak Leaf Hydrangea to Honey Fungus and have filled the gap with a planting of Sarcococcas, which should do well even in that dry shady spot, once they do some growing.
Being members of the Box family, they are resistant to Honey fungus, so fingers crossed.
Two of the species that we have chosen are “Dragon Gate”, which is a fine, bushy grower and the graceful Willow Leaf Sarcococca saligna.
All Sarcococcas creep gently creating little thickets of stems; just what I want in that corner.
I hope that they will fill the gap and look forward to yet more clouds of scent.
Snowdrops, Snowdrops, Snowdrops…
The rear boundary beds are now awash in Snowdrops.
They are mostly Galanthus elwesii, which were here when we moved in over twenty years ago.
They have been divided and transplanted many times and have multiplied obligingly until now they appear over all the south beds.
I have also added special (read expensive) Snowdrops to the mix, but they can take their time to perform…and by the time they bloom I have sometimes forgotten what they were…??
Early Crocus
Specie crocus, the early small-flowered ones, are also beginning to appear and flower, rising up into puddles of soft purple and pink in the lawn.
The Bumblebees love them and can be seen hunting for nectar on a sunny day.
“all are harbingers of the coming season”
They have colonized the southwest corner and I see them dotted everywhere.
A Song Thrush has been singing in the garden. The branches of maples and cornuses are reddening as their sap rises; buds are swelling on cherry trees and the Blackthorn is in delicate white bloom; all are harbingers of the coming season.
Next up: Chionodoxas, early Daffodils, Hellebores…
I too love the shrubs that provide scent in the winter. Along with Sarcococcas, we have a Lonicera, an Edgeworthia and three Hamamelis, all of which produce intense scent at this time of year. I always feel that the scents of winter need to be very strong in order to reach as far as possible to tempt as many bumblebees as are sheltering nearby to risk a flight in freezing temperatures.
Thanks for your comment.
There was a posting from the3growbags.com entitled “Best Plants for Scent in Winter” in which one of the sisters goes out with a head torch and discovers lots of tiny wintermoths attracted to her sarcococcas.
She felt that the scent intensified towards evening…and we know that most moths, being night fliers, are attracted to white or pale flowers (in the gloaming as it were). So there.