Bamboo Glade

This beautiful native of Japan took over twenty years to produce its first flower, but now, after thirty years, it is covered in magnificent heavily-scented blooms, "like huge goblets of creamy yellow with a mass of scarlet stamens at the centre" (Roy Genders), that fill the glade with their perfume. It was worth waiting all those years for.

Formerly known as Wattakaka, this Chinese hardy climbing plant is deciduous in our climate, but grows and thrives happily on the north east corner of the house, with its roots in the gravel drive, reaching a height of four metres or more. It flowers in early July. The flowers are white with crimson spots, filling the surrounding air with a hop-like perfume.

A deciduous, arching shrub with very fragrant flowers, white with pale purple markings, in late spring and early summer. There are other philadelphus in the glade, all scented, including Avalanche, coronarius aureus, Innocence and Minnesota Snowflake.

This old unidentified Mahonia, growing through the equally ancient Mount Etna broom, and swathed in vines of last summer's golden hop, adds its rich scent to the winter garden.

Lonicera fragrantissima, the winter honeysuckle, can make a dense evergreen bush up to 3 metres high and wide, which covers itself in highly scented flowers from mid-December till early April. Each tiny twin flower emits a delicious penetrating perfume on even the coldest winter day.

Viburnum bodnantense "Dawn" is a tall, rather gawky, deciduous shrub with bronze foliage, bearing clusters of attractive and very fragrant pink flowers throughout winter. (The bush in the picture is smothered in muehlenbeckia complexa, with fiddle shaped leaves.) This picture was taken in early March.

Cytisus battandieri, the Moroccan broom, is also known as the pineapple broom. Less hardy than some other brooms, it would appreciate a warm wall to grow against, though it does not get one here. The sheer beauty of the plant, which can grow up to 4 or 5 metres, its silvery leaves and its wonderful scent, merit special consideration.

Prostanthera rotundifolia, the round-leaved mint bush, is a small Australian shrub with sweetly aromatic leaves. Not fully hardy, but it survived -6 deg.C this winter in the glade.

Akebia quinata, the chocolate vine, is a vigorous, woody-stemmed twining climber, semi-evergreen in mild winters, with brownish purple flowers, vanilla scented, in late spring. Can climb up to 10 metres or more.

Lunaria rediviva is a perennial relative of the familiar annual honesty. Happy in quite heavy woodland shade, and in spring bears racemes of white or lilac flowers with a sweet scent similar to that of hesperis matronalis.

Carpenteria californica is the only species in the genus, which is related to philadelphus. It is rare in the wild, growing only in a small area of California between the San Joaquin and King rivers, but is widespread in English and European gardens. The scent is sweet and delicate.