Whats Looking Good February 2025

I am getting hellebore envoy again Sarcorrca are look good as well I don't normally take much notice of them .
Strelitzia looks marvoulous @Victoria I grow a dwarf variety a good few years ago from seed , didn't realise they took 8 years are so to flower I give to my mum , I am going to nick it back when it looks ready to come home

 

The sudden temperature increase today has made the early crocuses (Whitwell Purple) open up.

 

I find it hard to get out of B&Q without buying a sarcococca. I'm usually looking at something else when the scent hits me from a couple of aisles away. I've got 4 already, but all still small and young.
I love hellebores, they flower for such a long time. My "Ice and Roses Red" has been flowering for 2 months now and the flowers are getting pollinated, so they must be keeping the early insects happy too.

 

I’ve grown two varieties of Sarcococca and am still not convinced that the smell is pleasant, does anyone else think this?

 

I only grew it once and cats pee comes to mind, very similar stink to box flowers.

 

It is a bit of a "Marmite" smell @Plantminded . I have 3 Sarcococca plants in various parts of the garden (all the same as far as I'm aware).
Two have a definite honey smell which I like, but the 3rd in a pot by the back door smells lighter and more "sugary".

 

I've never been able to smell a Sarcococca.

 

Yours sound more appealing than mine @AnniD . I think I might recruit mine to the potential space for a new plant category soon!

 

Both myself and Mrs LS love the smell of Sarcococca. Ours is growing from a black berry I pinched from a huge specimen in Sheffield Botanical Gardens which I think is 'confusa'. It has a definite vanilla-like scent.

 

Our single sarcococca's scent is sometimes pleasant, sometimes not. I'm happy with it simply because it's the only source of strong scent in the garden at the moment.

 

When I posted a photo of my sarococca further up, I mentioned that its scent reminds me of traditional silver polish. Pleasant enough, if not in the honeysuckle or jasmine league .

 

I love the smell of my Sarcococca confusa. I have it in a narrow space against a fence and I walk past it every time I go out to the bins or washing line etc. I couldn't smell it today because it's quite blustery, but on a still day it's lovely.

 

That's interesting to know @LunarSea. There may be differences in scent according to variety. Mine is S. hookeriana var. digyna. Confusa sounds better! Funnily enough, I actually like the smell of box leaves and flowers which are related and also those of privet.

 

I've got a little Daphne Perfume Princess in a pot on the patio, flowering since just before Christmas and only just starting to go over now. The scent has been lovely, especially in the evenings when I've stood out at dusk to listen to the tawny owls and look at the planets (on those rare occasions it hasn't been raining).

I bought a second one last year, a white this time rather than a pink, and it seems to be much later flowering - it's got a few big flower buds but no hint of them opening any time soon.