Winter daphne is the most amazing smelling flower. It's been luring me for years with it's indescribable citrus/floral scent. It all started in my grandma's front yard when I was 4 years old. It was there that I studied the delicate and easily bruised petals of gardenias, the elusive nectar of honeysuckles and the fragrance my beloved daphne. If any fragrance could have the skill of a ventriloquist, it would have to be Daphne odora. This is a fragrance that you can smell from two blocks away but even though you get closer and closer, depending on the ways of the breeze, you may not smell it at all. You have to know what it looks like and that this scent can be tricky to find this shrub. You have to look down lower and you have to look for something inconspicuous. To my displeasure, daphnes are poisonous so I can't make my own perfume. I'm not aware of any skilled person that makes a scent similar to it but I have a secret agent helping me on my search this time. Although I understand that part of it's charm is it's sudden arrival and even more sudden disappearing act.
Just when you think you can't deal with winter for another second, the clouds break and the lovely daphne sings the bright note of "Spring is almost here!" - that's what allows me to keep my chin up.
You should plant one! It's a lovely evergreen shrub with beautifully scented flowers that are made even more special because they only appear for a few weeks out of the year. It's something that I look forward to year after year and as I sit here at my desk with my little bundle of fresh picked Daphne odora Variegata (which I swiped from the yard of a church a few blocks from my work) I'm just taking it in. I'm going to enjoy this fleeting moment and the ghost of daphne crying out, "Warmer days are coming."
