The Aromatherapy Garden by Kathi Keville

Author:Kathi Keville [Keville, Kathi]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Timber Press
Published: 2016-02-28T05:00:00+00:00

Daphne

Daphne odora

Daphne family: Thymelaeaceae

Perennial

Zones 7–9

Hidden under daphne’s cloying, heady perfume is a hint of citrus and the sharp scent of the bay laurel tree. Said to be the most fragrant of all garden flowers, daphne is famous for a pervasive, sugar-citrus scent that can extend across the landscape for twenty feet or more. It smells as if someone ground up lemon peel, bay laurel leaves, rosebuds, and brown sugar, then blended them with orange blossoms into a mix—a mix that is too strong to eat, but with an aroma perfect for a hot bath. I find it intoxicating, although perhaps this is because daphne blooms in winter when few other plants care to flower. Nineteenth-century novelist Henry Kingsley, in Silcote of Silcotes, elaborately describes daphne as having “the most rich, glorious, overpowering scent in the world, to which that of the magnolia seems like a grocer’s spice. How do the storms and frosts of a bitter northern winter develop such a pure sweet scent?” Daphne’s intense scent is relaxing to the point of being sedative. It alleviates stress, helping one forget one’s problems. In China, it was originally called shuixian, or sleeping scent.

Daphne has small, pink flowers. Daphne odora ‘Aureomarginata’, with deeper pink flowers and yellow-edged leaves, is extra hardy and is perhaps the easiest daphne to cultivate. It has the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit. Nepalese paper plant (D. bholua) is not a great beauty until it bursts into intensely fragrant, lilac-colored flowers in late summer. February daphne (D. mezereum) bears aromatic, striking red flowers.

The shrub looks good throughout the year, even when not flowering. It is poisonous to ingest and its flowers do not last once picked, making daphne best enjoyed in the garden. I have ‘Aureomarginata’ next to my hot tub. Need I say more? Surround it with shade-loving ground covers such as sweet woodruff. Daphne dies easily so it pays to carefully prepare a spot with rich, alkaline humus and diffused light. Try to not move it once established.

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