Smell this shrub first before seeing it. Its the middle of our temperate winter and beginning to cover with pale clusters of blooms. I ...Read Morefirst thought it can be related to the salvia or fushias but its a rare and unique shrub. The flowers are bigger then dahpnes. The shrub form is rather loose like a fushia and not bushy like a daphne. Not likely to find it at gardening center or nursery. I saw it at the botanical garden in SF, one of those rare plants that flowers in the winter.
Native to Nepal, Luculia pinceana may not be as well known as the more common and larger Luculia gratissima from the Himalayas, but it is...Read More certainly worth searching for. It only grows about 3 metres high and has compact rosy pink tubular flowers in a tight head much like a hydrangea. The flowers have a very sweet, delicious musk-jasmine fragrance that can be smelled up to 15 metres away. While it is usually an evergreen shrub, in cooler climates it will become semi-deciduous. It is frost tender to 5 degrees, it is best grown in a warm sheltered position, filtered light in slightly acidic soils rich in organic material, but needs considerable summer watering. It can be propagated by seed sown in spring, or soft tip cuttings taken in late spring. It is an ideal addition to a garden where rhododendrons and camellias already successfully grow.
Smell this shrub first before seeing it. Its the middle of our temperate winter and beginning to cover with pale clusters of blooms. I ...Read More
Native to Nepal, Luculia pinceana may not be as well known as the more common and larger Luculia gratissima from the Himalayas, but it is...Read More