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A vigorous evergreen shrub with strongly scented flowers. I have a few different species planted under the new windreak and hopefully in future winters it will be wonderful. This is now treated as a species in its own right (rather than Sarcococca humilis). It should be a very dwarf plant but it is often mixed up with S.confusa and I am not convinced mine is true to name. Trees and Shrubs online says: "A native of western China, discovered by Augustine Henry and introduced by Wilson in 1907. It is closely allied to R. hookeriana var. digyna, differing in its dwarfer stature, its shorter, relatively much broader leaves and pink anthers (cream-coloured in R. hookeriana var. digyna). It is a neat little shrub sending up new stems from the ground like a butcher’s broom, and normally flowering in February." Jacksons Nurseries say: "This is a dwarf, evergreen shrub which produces a beautiful, lingering fragrance of honey-scented vanilla. It has attractive, narrow glossy green leaves and bears unusual, yet appealing, clusters of pink-flushed, white flowers in early winter. These have petal-like stamens tipped with pink anthers and can be cut and used in the home as perfume. The flowers are followed by black berries which help to provide colour and interest well into the spring. Writing in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1960, N. K. Gould says: "This dwarf shrub can be seen to perfection planted beneath rhododendrons on Battlestone Hill, its cheerful, glossy green leaves intermixed in winter with almond-scented flowers and at a later season with black berries. It is not much over 18 inches tall and, if larger growing species similar in character are required, there are S.confusa, also with dark fruits and S. ruscifolia, which has broader leaves and red fruits." |
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| 1st February 2009 | ||
