Sweet winter sweet

A young bush of the 'Lutea' form of winter sweet beside a garden path 

There is one winter-flowering shrub which I love so much that I have planted not one, not two, not even three, but four in my garden. It is the winter sweet, Chimonanthus praecox. I have it by the front door, among a bed of other scented shrubs along the north wall of the house, and beside paths in other parts of the garden. It was originally found only in China, but has now been spread right around the temperate world by those who love its habit of providing fragrance in the middle of winter. Its gorgeous scent comes from a pale yellow and insignificant flower that hangs sparsely on to bare twigs. In the species form the flower has a reddish-purple centre. There is a cultivar, 'Lutea', which is a purer, finer yellow all over.

For most of the year the winter sweet is a rather dull shrub with mid-green leaves – not a plant that attracts any notice. In autumn the leaves go an attractive butter yellow, before falling off to reveal the flower buds that start opening in July in my garden. For as long as they last, on a (relatively) warm winter's day, a large bush of winter sweet will stop people in their tracks, their noses questing for the source of the fragrance. 

 Winter sweet and another scented winter-flowering shrub,  

Daphne bholua, make fine vase companions

Winter sweets are very slow growing shrubs, but when full size they can be two to three metres tall, and a metre and a half wide. They prefer soft, acidic, well-drained soil. They flower on ripened young wood, so are best pruned by cutting flowering branches to put in vases in winter, and trimming back the rest of the shrub after flowering.