This shrub, a native of China, cultivated in England for two centuries or more, is one of the joys of winter when, from June until August, its creamy lemon flowers fill the garden (and the house, if picked) with a wonderful spicy fragrance. This deciduous shrub has grown 200cm tall by 180cm wide in ten years in our own garden. It is happy in both sun and light shade. It is very tough and needs very little extra irrigation. Most years it gets watered a mere two or three times in the Lambley garden.
“Among the many winter-flowering shrubs which are deliciously scented, none has a more penetrating, spicy smell than this” G.S. Thomas Ornamental Shrubs, Climbers and Bamboos.