Oh gosh, yes! Elisabeth's China sure is. And The Dark Lady, as well. Oh, and Sombreuil, and Grandmother's Hat.

Jeri

I've got a big Sweet Olive shrub/ small tree. The flowers are so little but the fragrance is powerful. People walk by and wonder where its coming from. Some gardenias are going and a few Frederick Mistral plus a lone Chrysler Imperil and a ragged spray of Souv. Malmaison that made it through the winds. There are a few flowers of my fragrance camellias beginning to open up. Its very exciting how camellia breeders are beginning to get fragrance into Japonicas and hybrids now. It's not strong but its there. I have a species camellia that has fragrance. Every year that it gets bigger the fragrance has more presence. It looks like a small ficus banjamina with teeny weeny white flowers. I have some sweet peas growing but no flowers yet.
One of my favorites this time of year is stock but everytime I plant them they don't grow. They just sit there. I don't know what I am doing wrong. Maybe something is eating the new growth?

The paperwhites are blooming like mad, I know some people do not like the scent but from a distance it is nice.

Ambridge is still loaded with blooms, a little worse for the several nights of freezing weather. But enough you can see it from the street through the side yard fence. Iceberg, our pink, Don Juan, Elle and Julia Child are also in bloom. Oh, and the left over .50 grocery store red mini's are happy blooming too.

Marie Pavie is blooming for me, too. One bloom had an unusual spicy note to it that I really liked.

I have a clove-scented carnation about to bloom. Love those.

Sophie's Perpetual gave me a deliciously scented flower recently.

Too cold for the Arabian Jasmine right now.

Everything's still under the snow for now, but when it melts the sarcococca ought to be in flower, and before the snow arrived and I could still get out in the garden I saw that the Chimonanthus praecox--winter sweet--had a couple of fragrant flowers. The sarcococca, a box relative, has insignificant white flowers with a noticeable sweet fragrance, a bit sickly to my nose but still when it comes along in the dead of winter I'm glad it's there. The Daphne odora will be along in a month or so. Some of the earliest plants to bloom in the garden are the sweet violets, both wild and cultivated. These get going around the end of February, though they'll bloom on and off in mild weather in fall and winter. I think the foliage is violet scented as well as the flowers.
I read once that box has fragrant flowers, but have never been able to detect it myself; and I don't know when it blooms. I have an idea it's early. It was only a year or two ago that I noticed that bay laurel blooms are scented. It too must bloom fairly early, because the buds are a good size right now. The scent isn't much, sweet and insipid, but it is there.
P.S. About sarcococcas, there are a number of species in cultivation, and they have different bloom times and degrees of fragrance. I believe that my two winter-flowering scented varieties are S. ruscifolia and S. confusa. All the sarcococcas I've seen have resembled one another considerably.

The only winter fragrance I have right now comes from perfume, hand lotion and soaps. Sigh...

not much in the frozen wilderness at home apart from the few usual auriculas. I have written about my beloved auricula collection before - one fugitive bloom has frequently appeared in the dead of winter, saving me from winter gloom - I have been known to dash outside, half a dozen times a day to catch a sniff of said auricula, fighting through rain and ice. These little primroses have copious offshoots - a smallish pot I split last year yielded 36 little plantlets, currently lined out on the greenhouse plinth. I will be transplanting them in my daughters tiny Victorian terrace garden in Norfolk - a perfect row of elizabethan miniatures like minute jewelled venetian glass sculptures.
Ah yes, Daphnes - one of my (many) bete noires - finally understanding that these tough plants do not need coddling within an inch of their lives, I might have better luck now that I have more confidence to be negligent (whereas in the past, I was negligent with spates of death-dealing over-compensation).
There is always the winter honeysuckle and only the wafting fragrance of bergamot saved the fibrous unidentified clod of something or other I nearly tossed on the compost.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about winter honeysuckle. My plants are still small which is perhaps why I haven't so far gotten much scent from them. I have cuttings rooting!
My suspicion is that daphnes are simply rather intolerant plants, growing easily only in a narrow range of conditions and otherwise ever ready to turn up their toes and die. They're tough enough where they're suited. Suzy, what do you think? Of course the only daphne I grow is D. odora 'Aureomarginata' (though D. mezereum and D. laureola are both native locally, albeit sparsely present). Are there other daphnes that are fairly easy to come by in Great Britain? They do sound mouthwatering.
I am totally in the dark about auriculas, and pretty much all primulas. In our winter idleness I don't suppose you could say a word about them, could you? We have only P. vulgaris growing wild here.

The first bulb I ever planted as a child--or should I say its immediate descendants--a 'Grand Soleil d'Or' Tazetta Narcissus is in full fragrant bloom right now, still at its original site. Sasanqua Camellia 'Shishigashira', with its delicious scent--sweet with a touch of the smell of gasoline!--is in bloom. (Sadly, the three other Camellias in bloom for me now--'Pink Granthamiana', 'Shikibu', and 'China Lady'--are unscented.) The foliage of Geranium 'Biokovo' bestows its sharp resinous scent on its neighborhood of the garden. Similarly, the leaves of Ruta odorata and Salvia lavandulifolia contribute their scents, though considerably helped along in that regard if one brushes the foliage lightly. Otherwise, the (weakly, in this weather) fragrant members of the garden are all roses: 'Safrano', two unknown Teas (one "red," one pink), 'Mrs. B.R. Cant', 'Souvenir de la Malmaison' of course. The light "musty banana" perfume of Chinas 'Archiduc Charles' and 'Climbing Cramoisi Superieur' can be detected with a little effort. But the signature scents of these weeks would definitely be those of 'Shishigashira' and 'Grand Soleil d'Or'--Rosedom, uncharacteristically, is only barely in the running.

We have no flowers and no fragrance now. Last night it was 5F and tonight 7F is expected. We have not had below zero this winter and as long as it stays that way I will feel fortunate. Still, I yearn rather wistfully for last winter's low of 10F.

Regarding daphnes: I have killed a few D. odora marginata but the present one is several years old. It barely grew until I covered it for about 3 winters with microfoam. It has been uncovered for a couple of years and now that it has survived the early years and is a little larger it is happier and a bushy 1 1/2 feet, although I doubt that it will ever reach the listed 3-4 feet. The plan was to coddle it the first few winters to get it over babyhood and then let it make it on its own. It seems to have worked. I had D. cneorum which lasted several years until it got shaded out by D. 'Somerset' and D. 'Carol Mackii'. These grew well but leaned (and leaned) into a path and were a general nuisance. For years they were pruned gently and then one Autumn being worn out by a day gardening, they got in the way and I cut them back ruthlessly. They were mostly gone by the next year and finished up the following. So I would have to say that they do not tolerate hard pruning. I vaguely remember reading that they are susceptible to (viruses?) anyway diseases they could get from pruning cuts. The last three were grown on a steep hillside and I have read that they like good drainage.

Cath

I have Osmanthus whose blooms might have been zapped by frosts (they still look the same, lol), but my trees aren't large at all yet and I can't smell a thing :) Hopefully I'm not just immune.

Later, I'll have my Sarcococca (the short kind with small berries) and Akebia. I love them both!

Right now the only scent I can catch is from some wallflowers that were on clearance at the end of the season. I've never grown them before. Nice! We have snow and it's in the 20's at night here, but they are blooming along with the winter jasmine (unscented).

Walking by the Wax Myrtles, if you brush them, there is a spicy scent that I adore. I'm really going to use that one more on account of that fragrance. It grows in nearly any condition here, which is also nice. I have some shady yet dry spots that could benefit from it, and I love how the foliage looks on that one. Hopefully the birds enjoy the berries during the winter, too. I have so many berried trees and shrubs that I'm not sure. I still see a ton of birds out there as cold as it is, so something is working ;)

(Today I saw a chipmunk hanging out near the bright red Nandina berries, btw. It was soooo cold, and yet that cute little guy said hello :D )

There are no blooms here right now. I have to settle for Rosemary, Thyme, Lavender, Douglas Fir, and Bay.

Cath, thanks for sharing your experiences with daphnes. They sound like they did fine for you; I will keep in mind what you said about hard pruning!

I adore auriculas. I am as obsessed with them as with roses. When my husband had business in London in april 2011, we timed the trip to coincide with the Norfolk Auricula Show at West Acre Nursery. I don't grow many show auriculas like those in the picture, mine are mostly alpine types, many grown from seed. They are very easy from seed. I started with only one packet of mixed auricula seeds 15 years ago and was hooked.

My rosemary bushes are blooming beautifully but it's otherwise rather bare in the garden. Sophy's Rose has abundant blooms and buds but unfortunately no scent that I can detect. Occasional fragrant blooms have been Belinda's Dream, Souvenir de la Malmaison and Miss Atwood.

Ingrid

P.S. It's raining!

Oh Ingrid -- Rosemary is in full bloom up here, too. What a wonderful thing it is, in bleak winter weather. AND -- Raining a little here, too! HOORAY!

Jeri

Gloire des Rosomanes is blooming right now in the cemetery and its got a wonderful old rose scent that carries in the air. We have many bulbs, including paperwhites and Erlicheer narcissus and early daffodils. Ny favorite scent, however, comes from the violets. So very sweet.

Here is our curator, Barbara Oliva, with one of our volunteers on a recent work day.
Anita

Melissa- the best description of any plant in the Sunset Western Garden Book is of the Winter Daphne, it says, "so prized for its pervasive floral perfume that it continues to be widely planted despite its unpredictable behavior. It can die despite the most intensive care or flourish with little attention until you invite all your gardening friends over to admire it at which point it promptly succumbs just to show you who's in charge."

My sarcococca is blooming and I have two violets! For some reason this winter is easier to get through than last year when I was just aching for roses. Maybe because I know they'll be just fine?

I forgot to mention the Daphne mezereum (Winter Daphne) until reminded by NewGirlinNorCal. Both the white flowered (with yellow berries) and the purple flowered have grown here. Both have lasted a reasonable time except the last planting of the purple flowered which was, I think, in too shaded a position. Neither has lasted indefinitely but the white flowered has seeded (one plant) and is also longer lived. I am guessing due to where it is positioned.

Cath

I have just been out in the garden to see what I could smell!!
The sweet violets under the orange tree are blooming and smelling so sweetly.
The Earlicheer and Grand Soleil d'Or narcissus are smelling gorgeous.
Of the scented roses, Sombreuil, Teasing Georgia, Lady Emma Hamilton and Colombian Climber all have blooms and are all smelling lovely.
My Sarcococca humilis has been very slow growing, but even though it is small, it is covered in buds.
Mine seems to flower later here. I don't know why.

January blooms.
Lady Emma Hamilton.

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Colombian Climber.{{gwi:225405}}

Daisy

This post was edited by daisyincrete on Sun, Jan 27, 13 at 9:04