GARDENER'S READING ROOM
The Art of Gardening

Fragrance in the Early Garden

Winter color; seed catalogs; texture; cold, wet rain. I'm tired of it all. I want it to be spring and I want it to come NOW!!

Most of us need something in the winter garden to remind us that spring will come again. Fragrance is that reminder. It can be as wistful as a yellow primrose or as heady and powerful as a sarcococca hedge. Fragrance comes in a myriad of forms to enhance any garden.

We are all familiar with the broad strokes of Witch Hazel (Hamamelis mollis) with its bright yellow flowers and great scent. We might overlook its hybrid relations like Hamamelis x intermedia 'Diane' with its coppery red flowers, or 'Arnold's Promise' which has a smaller habit than the species. The intermedia hybrids have a slighter fragrance than the species but are still great.

Other familiar notes in the winter garden are Sarcococca (Sweet Box) and Daphne. Again, we are all pretty familiar with Sarcococca ruscifolia with its great vanilla scent and red fruit. We should also try S. confusa with a taller habit and glossy black fruit, or the low shrubby form of S. hookerana humilis which makes a great low hedge in a dry shady spot. Daphnes also come in other flavors besides the lovely D. odora 'Marginata'. For a change of pace try D. odora 'Leucantha' which is identical in habit except for its lack of marginal variegation.

February Daphne (D. mezereum) is a stark upright cluster of twigs until the lilac pink flowers emerge (along with their glorious perfume) just before the leaves.

Viburnums lend their own unique fragrance to the winter landscape. The striking contrast of V. bodnatense 'Pink Dawn's dark bark and clear pink flower clusters is an added bonus to its invigorating scent. V. tinus 'Spring Bouquet' with its seemingly omnipresent clusters of flowers and bright blue fruit is not often associated with fragrance, but it has a delicate one which will brighten an enclosed area.

We can look forward to the early spring blooms of Clematis armandii, but did you know that C. cirrhosa v. balearica is semi-evergreen and blooms fragrantly in the midwinter? Honeysuckle can also be found in the winter if we plant Lonicera fragrantissima. Its creamy flowers can bloom for two months starting in January.

Remember that fragrance is enhanced by enclosed spaces, by air currents to drift it around, and sometimes by a warm wall. Mostly it just needs to tease me to get me to close my eyes, breathe deeply, and remember that spring is indeed on the way.

For more information on winter fragrance, see Fragrance in Bloom by Ann Lovejoy, Sasquatch Books, 1996.

By Lynn Wright, W.C.N.
Skylights Spring/Summer 2000, Vol 14, No. 2

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