February: Sarcococca or Sweet Box
This is a small group of evergreen, scented shrubs which should be better-known, also known as Christmas or sweet box. Sarcococca species originate in China and the Himalayas and are related to the common box, Buxus. They are easy to grow, prefer shade or part shade, usefully tolerating quite dry shade and can be pruned after flowering if growing slightly too large or wayward.
Visitors to the garden on a sunny day in the winter are likely to remark on the sweet scent of a Sarcococca. You tend to notice the fragrance several paces after you have walked past it, also a few sprigs picked for a small vase in the house is a nice treat in the depths of winter, all of them last well in water.
Probably the best known is Sarcococca confusa makes a green fountain all year. This is the largest and bushiest of the sweet boxes. It can grow as high as 6ft but 4ft is more normal. It does spread a bit and has small white scented flowers followed by black berries.
Smaller than S. confusa is S. ruscifolia var. chinensis, which has flowers all the way up the stem, followed by red berries, and has a neat growth habit.
They are all good but perhaps the best is S. hookeriana var. digyna, which has narrow, pointed leaves. If you like a touch of purple there is one with a reddish stem known as 'Purple Stem'. The flowers of these two small shrubs are somewhat pinker than the rest; the habit of digyna is more upright and compact although it does spread a little by suckers.
Smallest of all the sweet boxes is the variety called humilis at only around 2ft tall.
If you have a spare shady corner, make a winter bed and edge it with one of the smaller Sarcococcas. Choose pale flowering plants such as white Helleborus, with maybe the unusual green-flowered currant Ribes laurifolium, under planted with some Cyclamen coum and Crocus tommasinianus. Or if you grow the yellow winter jasmine on a shady wall put a bush of a taller Sarcococca just in front and plant a late summer flowering white Clematis such as 'Huldine' to grow through the jasmine for summer interest.