Wintersweet

Wintersweet is an appropriate common name, for the flowers appear all winter on mature plants, and are renowned for their fragrance, whole stems often being cut for indoor arrangements. The small waxy blooms, light sulphur yellow with brownish purple inner petals, are produced on the bare branches of older bushes and it takes a young plant a few years to settle down to flowering. It is best grown on a warm sheltered wall in full sun, behind other plants which provide later colour over once the wintersweet has finished flowering.