Planting for a fragrant winter
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Apart from those fortunate gardeners in the genuinely frost-free, mild Far North, winter is very hard to ignore. Many New Zealand home-owners (I hesitate to call them gardeners) insist on planting evergreens only, to lessen the visible effects of winter, but the signs are there nevertheless, most noticeably in the lack of flowers and consequently, colour.
Plants rarely expend energy unnecessarily and as flamboyant flowers are most effective at attracting those fast-moving, mainly summer-active pollinators like bees, hoverflies and the myriad of small beetles and other flying insects, it is scarcely surprising that bright flowers are rare in winter. However, though colour may be lacking, many plants choose to bloom in winter and early spring, they just adopt a different strategy to attract pollinators — scent.
Coloured flowers are only attractive to pollinators that can see them. That’s fine from spring to autumn when the insect concentrations are high, but to attract the few pollinators available in winter, requires something that can draw them from a longer range. Scent is especially useful for this, so useful that few scented plants have any great need to use colour as well. Consequently many scented, winter-blooming plants have rather drab flowers.
None of this is surprising, there are many examples of plants that we grow solely for their winter scent rather than the beauty of their flowers. What is surprising is that so few gardeners plan to take full advantage of the scents of winter. Now is the time to look around the garden centres for something to spice up your winter garden.
Daphne must be the all-time favourite winter bloomer. While there can be few New Zealand gardeners that haven’t tried the common Daphne odora ‘Leucantha’, it can be a disappointingly poor grower and is short-lived too.
For gardeners in areas where frosts are common the hardier variegated form, D. odora ‘Aureomarginata’ is a better bet. However, I prefer a different species altogether. Daphne bholua looks very like D. odora, but is hardier, has more fragrant flowers and, I think, better foliage. Admittedly it does lose quite a bit of its winter foliage in cold areas, but it has so many advantages I really can’t understand why it isn’t more common.
Later in winter the spurge laurel (Daphne laureola) starts to bloom. A bluish-green leafed evergreen, looking much like D. odora, its heads of green flowers are easily overlooked, but if you happen to pass by on a mild evening, the scent can be a knockout. D. laureola is one of those frustrating plants that never seems to have any scent when you want to demonstrate it to a friend, while in those private, quiet garden moments it can be overpowering.
The deciduous daphnes are well-worth growing. The best winter-flowering species is D. mezereum, which rather than having terminal heads of blooms, has flowers all along the stems. The true species is pale pink, with deep pink and white forms fairly readily available.
Consider too the very unusual daphne relative Edgeworthia papyrifera. It is a thick-stemmed, stock deciduous shrub that produces rounded terminal heads of strongly fragrant creamy-yellow flowers from late winter.
Possibly even more of a winter cliché than daphne is the wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox), one of the few deciduous plants that those evergreen-only gardeners would consider having. Wintersweet is slow to establish and once again the flowers are nothing exciting to look at, but what a scent!
Although the witch hazels are possibly too large for many city gardens, they would be among my first choices for a large country garden. The common Hamamelis mollis, H. japonica and H. × intermedia species and cultivars have very similar cream to bright yellow spidery-petalled flowers. En masse the bloom can be showy, though witch hazel is primarily grown for fragrance.
My favourite witch hazel is H. × intermedia ‘Jelena’. Although it is not as strongly scented as some, it is a bright burnt orange shade and I find that its compact growth habit is better suited to small gardens.
In early winter the first mahonias come into bloom. While they are primarily grown for their foliage and growth form, the bright yellow, slightly scented flowers are striking, if short-lived. Mahonia lomariifolia, the most common species, is among the first to flower. Like most it is scented but is prickly holly-like foliage makes a close approach for sniffing rather hazardous.
Skimmia japonica is an evergreen shrub that has long appealed to me and I am very pleased to see that it is now becoming popular. Much of its appeal lies in its bright red winter-borne berries. However, it also has fragrant flowers that, although occurring in late winter, are rather tiny. Skimmia laureola, on the other hand, has black berries that are not too exciting, but puts on a much better show of fragrant cream flowers in late winter.
Sarcococcas are also compact, evergreen, fragrant shrubs that have never really been as widely grown here as perhaps they should be. They tend to regarded simply as foliage fillers for dry shade, despite being very attractive and useful plants that would benefit from being given more prominence. Sarcococca ruscifolia is the easiest species to find. It has small, tough, leathery, deep green leaves and small fragrant white flowers in early spring. Sarcococca confusa, S. hookeriana and S. humilis are better if you are looking for winter bloom, just don’t expect them to be easy to find in the shops.
If I had to have just one winter-flowering scented shrub it would be Viburnum × bodnantense. This hybrid between V. farreri and V. grandiflorum (fine winter-flowering shrubs in their own right) starts to flower in autumn while it still has some foliage and continues to flower through winter. It is a very delicate and graceful multi-stemmed shrub. Although it may not be as fragrant as the spring- and summer-flowering viburnums, it is so much more welcome at the time it blooms. Its flowers are white to very pale pink. The cultivar ‘Dawn’ has darker flowers and will provide more colour — if you can find it.
Those in mild areas may like to try the viburnum-like Rondeletia species. Rondoletia odorata is the most scented, though R. amoena is more common. Neither will tolerate heavy or repeated frosts.
Of course the winter garden is not all shrubs. There are the fragrant early daffodils and snowflakes (Galanthus spp.), and in most parts of the country some of the delicately scented crocuses and irises will bloom in winter. Sweet violets are renowned for fragrance and even cinerarias have a slight scent that can be very noticeable with large plantings. Also, there’s the traditional bowl of hyacinth forced into flower in winter. Not really a winter-blooming plant but a great way to get an early taste of spring.
Climbers too, often have scented flowers. However, many of the best winter-flowering scented climbers are rather frost tender. In mild areas, jasmines, honeysuckles, Gelsemium, Hoya and Trachelospermum will probably bloom through winter.
Winter-flowering fragrant trees, other than the rather shrubby witch hazels, are not common; acacias are probably the most widely grown. Acacia dealbata can be something of a weed, but it does have sweetly scented flowers. The species that most appeals to me is the cinnamon-scented Acacia cardiophylla. Not only is it fragrant, there is also the beautiful ferny foliage to consider.
So get out there, have a look at the garden centres, nurseries or mail order catalogues and see what you can find.
However, before rushing into planting there are a few practical points to consider. Apart from the usual cultivation requirements — drainage, mulching, feeding — remember that to fully appreciate scented plants you need to be able to get close to them. Yet in winter the soil is often too wet and muddy to walk on. Planting along pathways or by entrances is often most effective. Why waste a scented plant by putting it at the back of a large shrubbery when it could be right by the door, wafting its scent into the house every time someone passes through.
Large scented shrubs or small trees like the witch hazels and some of the viburnums, which are simply too big and often too strongly scented to plant right next to the house, should be positioned with care. Consider the prevailing breezes (why send all the scent to the neighbours) and if you have a large garden how often you are likely to be in that part of it.
All is not lost if you have inherited a garden with poorly positioned fragrant plants. Many can be transplanted with ease and if that’s not practical, virtually all of the winter-flowering shrubs can be used as cut flowers indoors — great for those days when you can’t get outside.
Copyright Geoff Bryant
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