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Wintersweet or Chimonanthus praecox
When the yellow leaves drop from this shrub at this time of year they reveal a mass of small sulphur yellow, waxy flowers with a reddish interior studded along the branches. But it is the alluring spicy sweet scent that makes you notice this Chinese deciduous shrub.
Wintersweet grows best in fertile free draining soil and full sun. Although it grows well in semi shade bud set requires summer baking. This shrub performs best with hot summers and cold winters and may take up to seven years before flowering but well worth the wait. Pick branches of the buds and flowers and put indoors where they will fragrance your house for a couple of weeks.
Winersweet is a mutli branched and suckering shrub so pruning is simply a matter of removing any unwanted growths annually. Do this in winter.
The variety C. praecox luteus has slightly larger flowers of pale yellow, without the staining.
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