Heaven scent

Fragrant flowers aren’t just the preserve of summer gardens. Choose the right plants and you can enjoy an aromatic autumn too

FOR most people, winter gardens are all about Christmas card scenery – snowmen on the lawn, icicles dripping from the gutters and frost highlighting seed heads in borders.

Flowers and scent? They are just summer stuff, surely?

But some shrubs confound expectations and if you like to make the most of your garden all year round, it’s worth looking out for the invaluable few with autumn and winter-scented flowers.

The golden rule is to avoid going for overkill. It might be tempting to plant them all right outside the front door, but they will merge into one great aromatic cloud like the cosmetics section at a department store.

So the trick is to keep each scent separate, so that you can identify and appreciate each one individually.

You might like to start with compact Daphne odora (Sarcococca hookeriana variety digyna) grown in tubs on the patio or by the back door so that the scent wafts indoors every time it’s opened.

On a warm, sunny wall in a sheltered corner you could have wall-trained wintersweet, leading out to a mixed border containing witch hazel or shrubby honeysuckle.

Or perhaps viburnum running along a regularly used path so you enjoy a quick whiff each time you pass by.

If there’s room, create a few cameos using a more unusual shrub as the focal point in an area of its own.

Standard-trained Lonicera fragrantissima is a cracker and makes an attractive and fragrant centrepiece, especially in a small formal garden.

If you have a particularly warm, sheltered sunny wall, try unusual almond-scented Abeliophyllum distichum or Azara microphylla, which has a marzipan air about it.

“That’s all very well,” I can hear you say, “But without any plants in place, what can I do now?”

If the weather looks like it’s staying decent, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t go to a nursery and treat yourself to a suitable plant in full flower, then stand it in a patio pot and enjoy it at its best.

Then you can plant it out properly in the spring.

Almondscented Abeliophyllum distichum

Witch hazel Hamamelis, commonly known as

Daphne odora is perfect for rock gardens and tubs