Blowing the cobwebs away on winter walks or by pottering in the garden for an hour or two after the festive season can be all the richer if you can breathe in the rich scent of fragrant shrubs.
If you’re thinking of planting a pot close to a window, where you can enjoy their colour and aroma over the cooler months, or want something which will create a scented showstopper in your beds and borders, here are five good candidates for winter scent.
1. Sarcococca confusa (sweet box)
Also known as the Christmas box, this compact evergreen shrub is one of the most useful in winter, its glossy, dark green leaves forming the backdrop to the delicate fragrant flowers which emerge in late winter and early spring. Plant it in your border or in a pot close to your patio, so you can enjoy a blend of sweet and spicy scent when you open the doors.
It’s not demanding, coping well in pollution and shade, so is ideal in an urban garden in a sheltered, shady courtyard, although it won’t tolerate cold winds. The small blooms are followed by black berries.
2. Chimonanthus praecox (wintersweet)
It may look a bit plain, but this deciduous shrub produces sweet-smelling, sulphur-yellow flowers on bare stems in the depths of winter, often lasting until mid-spring so it’s a plant which keeps on giving.
Ideally placed at the back of the border, its waxy, creamy yellow flowers appear on bare branches emitting a scent which hangs in the cold winter air.
Cut stems and add them to indoor flower displays so you can enjoy their spicy fragrance in your home. They like a sunny spot where the shoots will ripen for flowering and make ideal wall shrubs in alkaline soil. Good varieties include ‘Luteus’.
3. Viburnum x bodnantense
If you want a long-flowering shrub which lasts more than winter, you can’t beat Viburnum x bodnantense, which flowers intermittently from late autumn to spring, unless you have a spell of really severe weather. Even if a harsh frost damages the open flowers, there will be more to come.
Among the good varieties is Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’, which produces clusters of pink buds on bare stems, which open out to highly fragrant pale pink tubular flowers.
You can grow viburnum in a pot, but they will need a roomy container as they’ll need space for their roots to spread. Whatever you do, make sure the pot is situated close to your home so you can enjoy this shrub’s heady winter fragrance.
4. Winter-flowering honeysuckle (Lonicera x purpusii ‘Winter Beauty’)
This deciduous or semi-evergreen shrub is less well known than its summer-flowering cousin and in the cooler months you’ll find it covered in clusters of creamy-white highly scented flowers. It can be easily incorporated into a hedge, so if you have one near a path you’ll be able to appreciate its gorgeous fragrance.
When its bright green leaves appear, it becomes less significant, so put it with plants which will provide more interest the rest of the year.
It is susceptible to frost damage but further blooms will come as new buds open. It’s easy to grow, thriving in most conditions and prefers wet, heavy soil. Cut it back in early spring to control its size and shape.
5. Witch hazel (hamamelis)
These winter wonders have spidery flowers – which withstand the winter weather – in shades ranging from pale yellow to rich orange and vibrant red which open in winter against bare branches, not only adding colour and form to the landscape, but also a glorious scent, which is most noticeable on milder days.
The types with yellow flowers stand out on really dull days and work well paired with evergreen shrubs and they will flower more profusely in the open, although they will tolerate light shade.
Vigorous by nature, growing into vase-shaped shrubs, they grow best in reasonably moist, neutral to acid soil. Good varieties include the yellow H. intermedia ‘Pallida’ and the orange H. x intermedia ‘Vesna’, with a height and spread of 4m x 3m.
