RSS Feed
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
A great plant for winter months
What a bonus that the huge brugmansia trumpets can perfume the whole yard and if there are a few gardenias, roses, sweet shrubs and tea olives here and there you have a landscape that is a real treat for the senses. My favorite fragrant plant is Daphne adora or winter daphne. The little clusters of buds begin forming in December and unfurl in January to display a tight cluster of small, trumpet-shaped, purple blooms with a light pink center. What a gift it is to have such over-powering fragrance at a time of year when only the crocus are up and about. Daphne is evergreen with dark green, glossy leaves unless you have the cultivar Aureo-marginata, which has yellow leaf margins. Few plants that I know do as good a job of growing uniformly. Mine is so perfectly symmetrical that I hesitate to cut any of the blooms for the house lest I interfere with its faultless, rounded shape. This plant likes a sheltered spot in morning sun with good drainage. Even suitably sited though, you may go out one day and find that your daphne (which looked great last week) has written its will and died. Experts say this sudden death is caused by viral disease that contributes to root rot. Emergency measures aren't going to prevail. It's time to call in the family. Pull it up but don't compost it. If you replace it, find another spot hopefully not infested with the offending virus that struck yours down. Not all daphnes reach the four foot, rounded shape of Daphne adora.There is one, Daphne cneorum, that grows less than a foot high and adorns itself in pink, frangrant flowers in early summer. The prospect of a fragrant groundcover intrigued me until I read the list of diseases, viruses and insects that beset this plant. Pass. Daphne burkwoodi shares the four foot stature of Daphne adoro and its pink blooms appear in May. You will find this plant readily available in nurseries and catalogs. Winter daphne smells like orange blossoms, cloves and cinnamon and even one little rosette of blooms will perfume your dining room for days. I really like fragrance in January and glossy green foliage all year.
Dora Garrick Fleming resides in Grove Hill.
|
for larger version       Ads have a Patent Pending. Click Here for More Information |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
