Let common scents prevail!

There are plenty of woody gems out there to provide an aromatic lift in winter, so give your garden the sniff test and...

ONCE you’ve reached the end of this paragraph, I’d like you to step into your back garden and sniff the air. In my experience, it will either smell fresh and alluring with floral overtones, or it will possess an odour that’s musty and unpleasant, with hints of soggy soil, rotting vegetation and maybe something nasty left by a fox.

Those whose garden smells good are likely to be growing scented, winter-flowering shrubs. Everyone in the other camp can improve their situation by introducing a few themselves – plants in bud will soon delight the olfactory senses, while younger specimens will establish, and deliver the goods next winter.

Among woody gems that provide an aromatic lift during the cold season are daphne, mahonia, sarcococca, shrubby honeysuckle, viburnum and witch hazel. Their flowers have sweet, fruity, citrusy or spicy notes, depending on species, and range from light to strong enough to be detected from a great distance.

As well as acting like natural air fresheners, scented shrubs have the power to wake up gardeners still in hibernation – a mere whiff of a floral fragrance through an open window is enough to make anybody head outside to investigate its source. Of course, many also have showy blooms that will brighten up a dismal day.

It’s not just us that gets a buzz out of these scented beauties. They are an important source of pollen and nectar for species of bee that forage during mild spells, and hungry birds will descend on plants to seek out other tasty insects.

Many winter-flowering shrubs are deciduous, bearing fragrant blooms on bare stems. This group includes shrubby honeysuckles, wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox), and some viburnums. Edgeworthia chrysantha grows to about 5ft and has shoots topped by spherical flower heads made up of tiny, tubular yellow flowers.

Perhaps the most desirable deciduous types are witch hazels (hamamelis), a tribe that barely merit a second glance for much of the year. However, they come into their own from December until March, when their branches are clothed with clusters of flowers in shades of yellow, red, orange and purple.

The blooms are made up of filament-like petals that vary in size, with some attractively twisted or crimped. All varieties are worth sniffing out, but there is no single witch hazel scent. Ranging from delicate to intense, their fragrance can be sweet, spicy, citrusy and even medicinal, and is at its best on a still, frosty day. Evergreen shrubs are well represented. Sweet box (sarcococca) has discreet, spidery white flowers that carry a potent floral perfume with hints of vanilla, and daphnes have a delightful spicy fragrance with distinct citrus notes. The yellow flowers that top architectural mahonias are reminiscent of lily-of-the-valley. Winter flowering shrubs are ideal in beds, borders and woodland style displays, and some will make fine specimen plants in a lawn. Don’t relegate them to a place you rarely tread – set them close to your front or back door, ensuring you can appreciate their fragrance every time you step outside. If you’re short of space, try growing plants in large containers filled with soil-based compost, such as John Innes No2 – use peat-free ericaceous compost if they’re acidlovers. Few of the plants mentioned above look good all year round, so move them to a less prominent spot once the floral display is over. The key to displaying several scented shrubs is to make sure they are given space, so you can fully enjoy the scent of individual plants.

However, don’t overdo it. A few shrubs will elevate your garden but the smell of too many different ones will have all the ambience of a serious accident at a perfume counter.

Plants in bud will delight the olfactory senses