Winter shrubs

A source of great delight in the bleak days of winter are the small but sparkling flowers of a multitude of shrubs. The further delight is that the majority have delicious fragrance.

There are too few of these winter wonders in the garden here at Glebe Co age and we’ve lost two of our finest scented shrubs, Viburnum bodnantense

‘Dawn’ and a fine hamamelis ‘Pallida’. We still have several winter-scented shrubs, our Mahonia japonica, skimmias and a Daphne bholua

– a much appreciated gift, but we need more scent.

Top of the new year shopping list is another witch hazel. But which witch hazel to choose? Hamamelis mollis, the Chinese witch hazel, is purportedly the most fragrant, but it’s the hybrids between it and the American witch hazel, H. virginiana, with the prefix intermedia, which are usually offered for sale. Of them ‘Pallida’ is probably the best scented. Other contenders

include ‘Diane’ with red, spidery flowers and ‘Arnold Promise’ with large, bright yellow flowers.