PlantFiles: Burkwood Daphne
Daphne x burkwoodii 'Carol Mackie'

I got two of these plants from White Flower Farms about 5 years ago. They were in 1 gal. containers. I have them planted in a raised flower bed and they get full sun to partial shade. They must like it there as they have grown to approximately 4' x 4'. I have people who stop in and comment on the sweet fragrance when they are in bloom. I will enjoy these shrubs for as long as possible. I understand they are short-lived, so I hope they last a while.

This is by far, the most commented on plant in my shrub bed. It is just beautiful and vigorous. It requires almost no care and increases in size dramatically each year. Visitors love it's beautiful form, color and fragrance.

I love this shrub. Two of mine have been growing in a bed on a slight slope with excellent drainage and morning sun for four years. They were planted as very small one gallon plants. The blooms are now abundant, though it took me three years before I received a heavy bloom. They smell heavenly, but at first it can be so sweet that enjoying the fragrance from a distance is better than sticking your nose in the flowers :-) Mine have attained a height of about 3+ feet and a spread of about 3.5 - 4 feet. Daphnes are supposedly deer resistant. While I don't get a lot of deer damage because they lose most of their leaves in my zone, I do experience some slight "chew pruning" (stole that term from some one on DG). This pruning method actually seems beneficial for my plants. I trim off the ragged ends, and my daphnes reward me with lush fully leafed out shrubs and fabulous new growth by the end of May. In colder climates they can be slow to leaf out again. One of my plants is a full two weeks behind the other, so allow some time before giving up your daphne for dead in the spring.

Very nice plant. They can be fussy about thier soil. It must be well drained. Also, water as little as possible during the summer, this will result in better blooms. They can however suffer from unexplained illness' without any warning. Enjoy them as long as you can but don't be suprised if one day they get sick without warning.

I inherited 3 of these when I purchased a house 2 year ago and they seemed to be doing fine until this spring when I discovered that one of the three had not survived the winter. Winter was brutal here with the longest stretches of sub-20 degree weather that anyone can remember. I also found small, bright orange spots on the trunk of the dead one.

As a named cultivar, this plant does not come true from seed. The rooted cuttings tend to be pricey, due to the difficulty in propagating it. Mine is worth every penny.

Daphnes have a reputation for being short-lived; however many individual plants reach several decades in age. I sure hope mine does!

Burkwood Daphnes are the result of a cross between D. cneorum and D. caucasica. The resulting cultivar was named for Mrs. Carolyn Brett (formerly Carol Mackie), who discovered the mutation of the hybrid in her New Jersey garden.

Two smallish plants were set out in my garden last year; contrary to warnings of slow growth, they each put on good growth and remained evergreen here in our (slightly-warmer-than-typical) zone 6b/7a winter. They even flowered, and the fragrance is VERY distinctive. A great plant that doesn't seem to need a lot of care.