-Tony " I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself...
at least three times." Avent, Plant Delights Nursery
Call me foolish, call me a slow learner, call me the recipient of a daphne shrub as a Christmas gift (I'm all three, by the way) but I'm going to sacrifice--oops--plant another "odorata" specimen, when weather conditions are right. Maybe I should just go ahead and hit myself in the foot with a big rock, but I will give daphne one more try. After all, daphnes are supposed to be hardy! I'd LIKE to consider my own experience to the contrary to be a fluke.
I began my relationship with daphnes with a small shrub, a three gallon 'odorata marginata'. Research told me that daphnes need good drainage, so I took great care to dig a big, deep hole and tilled in some sharp gravel its' bottom. I dug said hole away from the wind, next to a warm wall, providing the protection daphnes need. This little bush seemed to be as happy as a weed, so I went out and bought two more to keep it company. Odd numbered groupings are more interesting, after all. Fast forward two years....and suddenly, instead of happy little shrubs, I had a hundred dollars worth of dead plant material. All three of them gave up the ghost, practically overnight.
Apparently, as these shrubs grew, their roots extended deeply into the subsoil. Once they hit hardpan clay, they quit on me. What nerve! They were located next to a french drain!
Many nurseries refer to 'winter daphne' as an easy plant to grow....unfortunately, it is also an easy plant to kill. Horticultural heavy hitters call daphne "fussy", "temperamental" and even "difficult, but worth trying". It doesn't merely 'enjoy' a few growing conditions, it makes growing DEMANDS.
But it IS lovely, and it does wonderful things in a hard season, when even my pansies are flat. Located near a door or well used pathway, they exude marvelously sweet perfume as you pass by. January and February seem a little less chilly with daphne flowers, blooming in the cold.
Daphne ('Burkwoodii' and cultivars ) makes a wonderful addition to a protected spot in your garden, but please let me give you a heads-up on its' vagaries, which may keep you from making errors in planting and nurturing them which has ruined them for me in the past.
