Two Worth-Having Early- Flowering Shrubs

Daphne odora

Right near the garden door I have two early-flowering shrubs which really lift the mood when they start blooming in February.

Daphne odora is still quite small - about 1ft tall. I took it as a cutting when I was attending  a propagation course at Cecil Sharp House in 2018 I think. So it's five years old. I have nurtured it carefully and planted it out the year before last. This year is its first prolific blooming and it may be small but it's tremendous. I've lost quite a lot of my sense of smell  since Covid but if I bend down to it or bring it indoors I can really get that fragrance. And so, I'm happy to say,  can the early insects. I saw a bumble bee on it last week. 

The shrub is nice and compact with a pretty shape and I'm proud of it.  

                                                    Daphne odora still very small but with plenty of flowers

Camellia transnokoensis is not the exotic large-flowered kind of camellia we usually think of, which flowers a little later, but has many very small  delicate flowers largely white with pink blobs. I suppose it's nearer to the original wild kind found on Taiwanese mountains. 

                                      

                                                                    Camellia transnokoensis

I have it growing in a container so it has remained small. I'm wondering whether to plant it out in the garden and give it its head. I fell in love with this shrub years ago and tried for several years to buy one at the RHS show in Victoria. They had always sold out but eventually I got one and here it is. I don't go to those shows now that you have to pay even if you're a member. I miss them though.