On one of the somewhat rare sunny winter days here in England, I noticed a discernibly different smell in the air. (These shrubs all benefit from pruning in springtime, after flowering and a mulch of well-rotted leaf mold to emulate their native woodland habitats.).
Photography by Britt Willoughby Dyer, except where noted.
Daphne
Daphne odora has small clusters of pink blossoms. Tip: There are more than 50 varieties of daphne and all parts of the plant are toxic, including the sap.
Like most of the deciduous winter flowering shrubs, winter sweet or Japan allspice (Chimonanthus praecox) flowers directly on the bare stems.
Winter Sweet
And then there are the sherbet lemons of the winter garden: Lonicera x purpusii, mahonia, and sarcococca that make your mouth twitch and water with their zingy fragrance.
Winter Honeysuckle
The most respectable of these is the Christmas box (Sarcococca confusa), which behaves itself with its gracefully arching stems of neat evergreen leaves, cream flowers, and black berries—perfect to brush past in a pot by the front door.
Christmas Box
Mahonia
The mahonia has to be taken in hand to behave, otherwise all its acid yellow flowers will be waving over your head, giving the birds but not you a good display.
Winter Beauty
But Lonicera fragrantissima ‘Winter Beauty’ is the most difficult. But yet again, the name says it all, the little flowers cluster like a troupe of ballerinas in frilly skirts exuding a mouthwatering fragrance.
Winter Beauty is best planted along a woodland path, or where a summer plant can obscure its gangly habit.
Viburnum
Evergreen flowering Viburnum tinus also makes a great hedge.
Photograph by Me via Wikimedia.