December is the time when the garden is dormant but there are still plenty of plants and shrubs you can buy to bring life to your garden such as the evergreen shrub Sarcococca, the Horticultural Trades Association’s (HTA) Plant of the Month for December.
Commonly known as Sweet Box or Christmas box with its delicate white flowers that bloom over winter and early Spring, this is the perfect plant to bring the scent of Christmas to your garden. This wonderful shrub is perfect planted by the edge of a path or close to the front door, where its vanilla scent and glossy green foliage can be fully appreciated.
This winter-flowering, dense, evergreen shrub is perfect for companion planting with other winter gems such as hellebores and cyclamen. It is a great addition to a winter garden as it’s a tough, reliable plant that is very easy to grow. Perfect for a border, in containers or as ground cover it will grow well in shade. It grows slowly and gradually to form low-growing mounds of evergreen foliage and also has red and black berries once flowering has finished.
Former Chanel model and founder of the Edible Busstop, Mak Gilchrist, is a real fan. She said: “This plant has incredibly intense scent and thrives at a time of year where there is little scent in the garden. I particularly like that about it. It’s a sensuous indulgence in the deep mid winter.”