Guess what! I found 2 wonderfully smelling blooms on my winter honeysuckle today!
Undescribabley delicious :) And hard to photgraph too :(
Winter Blooming Shrubs
Ooohhh Vi! I can smell it thru the screen! Which variety do you have? Winter Honeysuckle is definitely on my want list!
Oh, I'll have to go out and smell mine. I sure hope its blooming!
BG there is only one http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/400/index.htm
l was hoping to learn more tips about this one as the leaves don't look real good--they have browned tips :(
This message was edited Jan 5, 2006 8:02 PM
My four o'clocks are still blooming ;-) Oh I love the South!
Ok berry girl, I found one 9 out of the 10 sites I found said Wintersweet is hardy in zone 7. http://plants.thompson-morgan.com/uk/en/product/1807/1?SA=1303.
Im trying it from seed this year to save$ it will be a few years to bloom :0( Ill let ya all know how it smells then lol!
Thanks HS! I need to move my Wintersweet into more sun!
Had it 2 years but hasn't grown much, nor bloomed :(
Thanks VI, she says with a red face. Had no idea there was only one- LOL!
Ha BG, that's what DG is all about, I didn't know either till someone here offered me one, and I had to look it up.
Vi, is the honeysuckle a vine or a bush? I have a vine growing wild on a fence line a few acres away that is blooming now. It also blooms in spring and summer. I know its a honeysuckle but I dont know what kind it is. It just smells like Heaven but its very aggresive.
This one is definitely a shrub. I have all kinds of Honeysuckles (mostly from FlowerScent Gardens, so I had to get this one too. See the PlantFiles link above for more detail.
I just recently learned there was a winter honeysuckle and it's on my list of plants to investigate maybe putting in!
Gwendalou
Really, Gwendalou? How interesting!
Wonder if it would do good here in the NW then?
Let me know what you find out.
By the way, did you ever order any dahlias from Swan Island Dahlias?
Carol
Hi all,
One of my favourite shrubs for this time of year is Daphne bholua which comes from the foothills of the Himalaya. There are several named clones, some are evergreen and a couple are deciduous. The evergreen ones tend to be more susceptible to cold than the deciduous ones. The scent is AMAZING completely filling my garden here in London at the moment with a rich rose/jasmine perfume. Daphne bholua 'Ghurkha' is a deciduous form and Daphne bholua 'Jacqueline Postill' is an evergreen form, both of which are tougher than the species and tolerate several degrees of frost during the winter. I don't think it would like it in a very cold garden though. I wouldn't be without it now, and have gone a bit overboard, having 5 different clones of it to date! It is the clone called 'Darjeeling', an evergreen form that is in flower at the moment. My plant has pretty wavy edges to the leaves which I haven't seen on the other forms. This is always the first to flower out of all of them and starts just before Christmas and goes through to early February. The others start a bit later in January here, and reach a peak in late January/early February going through to the end of February. Try it, you won't be disappointed; the scent is staggering and will certainly make the dark days of winter in the north a little more interesting and enjoyable.
(The plant pictured in the link is an evergreen form, flowering with the leaves.)
www.glendoick.com/images/pictures/daphne%20bholua.jpg
Matt
How large do they get? I have a Daphne Odora that somehow forgot that it has the Odora to its name. I just haven't been able to smell it at all for the last two years. :-( I'd love to try a different kind if they can grow here. How cold does it get in London? We're pretty far south, so I'm just wondering if we're compatible weather wise.
They are larger plants than D. odora getting up to around 8' high and 3 - 4' across when fully grown. When happy they also sucker from the base although they are not invasive at all. The temperature in London gets down to about 25F at odd times during the winter. Our climate is very changeable and so it can be cold for a couple of days and then mild again in the 50s. I do have another garden in Norfolk though which is much more cold than here the temperature getting down to 18F and Daphne bholuas there still do well. I have 4 clones growing there, and one 'Jaqueline Postill is now about 8-9' tall. In the really cold weather as this one is evergreen, the leaves can look a bit 'sorry for themselves' but it still flowers it's head off, and by mid spring has outgrown all the effects of the winter.
Matt
Ok I want one but, almost no info no care or where to buy on the web. So spill it Matt how can I get one?
Heavinscent, hope this helps. Matt
Link to information of varieties that are in cultivation:
www.rhs.org.uk/plants/plant_groups/daphne_bholua.asp
Links to notes on information and cultivation of D bholua
www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Daphne+bholua&CAN=LATIND
www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/10502.shtml
Links to US nurseries offering D bholua in their catalogues
www.rdrop.com/users/green/plantit/index.htm
www.arrowhead-alpines.com/defg_shrub.htm
www.gosslerfarms.com/store/products.php?type=category&item=33&pn=2
www.heronswood.com/catalog/03962?fRPh7Pdu;;248
You are awsome!!
Heck, I've gone red!! - Just helping on a subject that really interests me!!
Matt
It's a real pleasure to have you here Matt!
I'm very tempted to get a few new shrubs but do wonder how long they take until blooming, can you help me out? With this shub getting so large, does it take years to bloom?
Hi violabird, it's a pleasure to be here!
Daphne bholua fortunately flowers when really small, unlike some other plants that take several years to settle in before even thinking about flowering. A plant around 18" to 2' in height should produce a few flowers for you. I bought a couple of different clones of D bholua last year that were about this size, and planted them in the garden, and they are now coming into bud.
The only thing about Daphnes is that they absolutely HATE root disturbance. If you attempt to move a plant once you have planted it in the garden it will surely keel over and die. So, it really is important to make sure you have considered the right spot for it before planting, so that as it grows larger it has enough room to develop and spread. Fortunately D. bholua will grow in full sun, part sun or full shade (so long as it isn't deep shade), so there are a number of positions that should suit it.
take care,
Matt
Matt, have you ever propagated Daphnes? I'm afraid to look at mine too hard, for fear they'll get the ole Up and Die Disease.
Carmen
Carmen,yes I have propagated them. They were D odora, D tangutica, D retusa, D pontica D x rollsdorfii and D 'Cheriton'. I took semi-ripe cuttings in summer around late June/early July. As far as rooting agents are concerned, I prefer to use rooting hormone powder as this has sulphur in it and protects against fungal infections while the cutting is rooting., I used 3" plastic pots and inserted one cutting in each. Plastic: to prevent the compost from drying out too fast; and one cutting in each pot: so that after rooting the young plant could grow and fill the pot with roots for about a year and the subsequent repotting could then be done without the rootball breaking up, so avoiding root disturbance. The compost used was 50% perlite and 50% ericaceous compost. The cuttings were then placed in a cold frame in light shade; but a plastic propagating tray with a lid that is kept out of direct sunlight once the cuttings are inside, will do just as well. All were successful in rooting. The only one I couldn't root in this way was D bholua. It is a bit more difficult to root and for this reason most of the nurseries propagate bholuas by grafting. I have subsequently found out that they do root if given bottom heat, so I'm planning to try a heated propagator using the same mix of compost etc., to see how they do.
Hope this helps.
Matt
That helped a lot, Matt. Thanks for the information. I will definitely try it this summer.
Carmen
Berrygirl, is it winter honeysuckle or winter sweet you want a start of, it is supposed to come from cuttings and mine is in need of pruning, be careful as here it is invasive. I just went out into the woods and sniffed until i found one with a better scent than most, seed should be availabe a bit later if you would prefer that