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Scented shrub ID

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  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited 7 February
    I fell in love with the perfume of Sarcococca on a sunny day in January on the Thames Embankment near Tower Bridge … when we got home I went straight to Notcutt’s and bought one and planted it by our front door … the perfume when we open the door at this time of year is wonderful and a few sprigs in a vase in the house is just lovely  😍 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I can't smell Sarcococca at all!

    Have you IDd it as Sarcococca, or could it have been Osmanthus? It's too early here for it to be in flower, but in the south it could well be. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    @Songbird-2, did you mean me? Different Lizzie.

    Strange thing, sense of smell. My NDN has several sarcococca. She loves it. I can hardly smell it. I think it's rather an ugly little bush, especially in summer. Luckily, I can smell roses.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • PalustrisPalustris Posts: 4,307
    Just to add that V, tinus has a really bad aroma when it is infected with Viburnum beetles.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I could take a photo of the one up the road, I suppose. But what if I got caught? " Oh I was just taking a photo of your plant to identify the source of that horrible smell " 😒
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    No @B3, wrong way round. "Oh I was just taking a photo of your plant to identify the source of that gorgeous smell as I would like one for my garden" 🙂
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • Songbird-2Songbird-2 Posts: 2,349
    So it was @Busy-Lizzie soz 🙂
  • RubytooRubytoo Posts: 1,630
    edited 7 February
    No @B3, wrong way round. "Oh I was just taking a photo of your plant to identify the source of that gorgeous smell as I would like one for my garden" 🙂
    Then they offer you a spade and say.
    "Please do take it home with you, I think it smells awful" :D

  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • TopbirdTopbird Posts: 8,355
    I have 3 types of scented shrubs in flower at the moment - winter flowering honeysuckle, a couple of different sarcococca and a couple of different viburnum bodnantenses.

    I love getting a little waft of them on a still winter's day - delicious - but I have tried taking small sprigs of each of them into the house and there I find the scent overpowering. Even just one or two small sprigs is too much. 

    It's a similar thing with hyacinths, jasmine and lilies. Lovely scent outside but sickly and overpowering in the house. 
    Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
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