Winter shrub/bush/tree for front garden.

The Winter/Spring ones generally seem to have a richer, more captivating fragrance to my nose. Another nice thing about my fragrantissima is that it will be covered with bumblebees in a few weeks! Last year there were so many on it that I could barely see the flowers. If you think about it, these rather large shrubs give the same benefit that a small drift of herbaceous perennials do to pollinators.

I naively thought mezereum would cope well but it was the worst performer in my heavy clay. "After all, it's a native species, should do well" I thought. Very flawed reasoning that, it popped it's clogs just after flowering! Then I gave transatlantica 'Eternal Fragrance' a go, not much better really. Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata' did best (almost lasted a year, wow! ) so what with "Rebbeca" being so closely related to it I'm seriously tempted. I wasn't familiar with 'Perfume Princess' but T&M call it "the world's most fragrant" shrub. Quite a claim, that!

Daphne 'Perfume Princess' plants | Thompson & Morgan

I'd heard of that Osmanthus species before but didn't realise it was pollinator-friendly! Might add that one to my front garden. Choisya ternata seriously struggled in my soil but was replaced by dewitteana 'White Dazzler' which absolutely thrived in it for years. Well, until I had too many glasses of Chardonnay one Summer evening and ended up stepping onto its central stem, snapping it in half! My mate actually 'rescued' that one by simply binding the stem together with a bit of cloth, and it's now performing beautifully in one of his large containers! Tremendously robust shrubs, choisyas.

Nick

 

What would you suggest?

 

I would have to do some research, google about, get a tree book from the library and look at listings on line, see what the Birds like to eat. plot down the size type when grown, color comparison to my other plantings, etc. Part of finding the process is what you discover as your searching, can't take that away from you now can I.

 

Lonicera fragrans. Winter flowering honeysuckle. Non climbing shrub, not evergreen, flowers Dec/ March depending on location.
Corylopsis spicata. Witchazel. Sarcocca.