PlantFiles: Oriental Paper Bush
Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Winter Gold'

This is amongst my favorite plants and I can't imagine a winter without it. It blooms with closed buds all winter long, opening up in February with delicious fragrance. It can get a tad droopy in the worst heat of summer sometimes, but it always recovers. The foliage is dark and attractive. The blooms are drop dead gorgeous above the snow. I like to keep it to a single stem and vase shaped, but can't bear to cut off the ground shoots until the blooms are gone. I've managed to root a couple just by pruning them off and sticking them in the ground nearby.

This is the first time my Edgeworthia has bloomed, and it is pretty satisfying so far. I erroneously put it in full sun last spring when I planted it, and it really should have been in part shade, at least. I watered and watered it and managed to keep it alive until all of a sudden it stopped needing so much (it wilts really quickly when thirsty). Apparently it's roots got deep enough to manage without me. I have a true genius for badly siting plants, and I'm glad this one survived my affliction.

The flowerheads formed last summer, and are pretty showy throughout the winter by themselves on the bare branches. They appear at the tip of each branch, where they seem to glow, particularly at dusk. Very, very nice.

And they smell divine!