What To Plant Now For Winter Fragrance

From winter honeysuckle’s strong scent to the subtle notes of mahonia, your plot can be home to a panopoly of perfumes during the colder months, says Anne Swithinbank

- Anne Swithinbank

Having a garden brings year-round pleasures – even in the depths of winter there is something to lift the spirits. Apart from walking the dog, digging leeks or filling the log basket, there’s not an awful lot to lure us out from the cosy comforts of indoors; but some of my favourite flower fragrances belong to plants whose blooms open on the shortest days of the year.

We’re advised to site these near paths and doorways for easy access; yet glimpses of pale pink viburnum blossom, winter honeysuckle and spidery witch hazel draw me to every corner of our plot. Rambling from one to another, inhaling perfume and cutting stems for indoors – it’s the perfect antidote to winter.

Weeks of fragrance

To be sure of pollination when few insects are about, the flowering periods of these plants tend to be long, and individual blooms last well. Deciduous Viburnum farreri and its offspring V. x bodnantense are fine examples, opening blooms from their flower clusters during mild spells from autumn to spring.

The olfactory feast starts with lily of the valley-scented mahonias; midwinter brings the head-turning perfumes of Christmas box, and a mild January encourages buds of Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’ to pop open, joined by an abundance of blossom from witch hazels. Wintersweet, edgeworthia and the fuzzy yellow blooms of the box leaf Azara (A. microphylla) appear during February, paving the way for spring.

Most winter scents waft from shrubby plants, and – true to their woodland origins – the majority share a love of humus-rich, well-drained soil and shelter from late frosts, cold winds and harsh sun. Add plenty of leaf mould or well-rotted garden compost to lighter soils; on heavier ones, consider growing In slightly raised beds to protect roots from winter waterlogging.