Daphne is another winter-flowering shrub that smells yummy scrummy. And it looks gorgeous as well, bringing lovely warm purple flowers into your garden when everything else hasn’t even started waking up.
D.mezereum is deciduous, but there is also an evergreen species, D.odora, whose purple flowers open even earlier. Both are rather delicate, even though their enthusiasm to flower in winter suggests otherwise. Don’t hard prune a Daphne, as it might never forgive you, and don’t dig it up and move it elsewhere: it gets far too attached to its surroundings to survive transplanting.
Vital stats:
Location:
Light, well-drained soil with plenty of compost dug in Light:
Full sun or part shade When to plant: Autumn What can I expect from this plant? Height: 1.5m
Spread: 1m
Flowers:February