How to grow and care for daphne

Just when you think you can’t stand another day of winter daphne makes her grand appearance.

With her delicate flowers and strong scent, she can be a powerful seductress at a dreary time of year when the branches are bare and little else is in bloom. But watch out.

This cool weather charmer who shows up often right around Valentine’s Day just might break your heart, and you may never know why she left you so abruptly.

“A lot of them keel over and die on people. I’ll get a perplexed customer saying it was fine for 15 years and one day it fell over and it’s gone. It’s hard,” said Fionuala Campion, the owner of Cottage Gardens of Petaluma.

People get attached to their plants and pour their sweat, time and hearts into keeping them alive and happy. But with daphne, an evergreen shrub that packs a fragrance like few other plants, death can come suddenly, out of nowhere and for no obvious reason.

That happened to Kate Flanagan. She had a series of them living for some 20 years along her house. But one day, despite her efforts to keep them watered, several died. She suspects the years of drought may have gotten to them.

“We always put fertilizer on them and we did everything we could. We watered but it wasn’t enough,” said the retired designer, who lived in Alexander Valley. “It just may be the temperamentality of the plant. It’s not easy to grow and they get a little leggy after awhile. But they’re very pretty. They’re a real treat. It’s the gift that comes every year.”

She still has the biggest one, right beside her door.

She gathered some cuttings last weekend to dress up the house for a Super Bowl gathering. She put some in her bathroom and it smelled like a scented candle had been burning in there, she said.

Flanagan, however, has a healthy attitude about gardening. As with love, if one plant doesn’t work out, don’t let your heart harden to the possibility of trying again.

“When any plant dies there’s a feeling of loss,” she lamented. “You put it in the ground. You babied it and then you’re surprised and delighted when it grows and blooms. It’s a living thing you’re losing. But we can always go buy some more.”

Growers and retailers alike encourage gardeners to be self-forgiving when it comes to daphne, which is sensitive to placement, soil and water.

“Never feel bad if your daphne dies,” said Lydia Constantini, the manager at Sonoma Mission Gardens in Sonoma. “It’s just the way they are. They’re finicky. Don’t take it personally.”

Despite the challenges, daphne is well worth welcoming into your Sonoma County garden.

They are well-adapted to our Northern California climate and they don’t respond well to over-love. You may want to give them a balanced feeding of fertilizer, but only once or twice a year after bloom.

They like well-drained soil, and not too much water, which is perfect for our summer dry climate in California. And they are not sensitive to frost during winter. Another added bonus? Deer don’t like daphne.

Greek namesake

In Greek mythology, Daphne is a nymph associated with streams and brooks and fresh water.

Cursed by a wrathful Cupid, she becomes an unwilling object of Apollo’s affection and he chases her. But just before he can steal a kiss, her river god father turns her into a laurel tree.

The story is apt for a namesake plant that doesn’t give over easy to a gardener, however adoring.

Campion said the fragrance is “amazing” and often stirs fond olfactory memories.

“It calls to mind fragrances from a garden gone by. So many customers say to me it reminds them of their grandmother’s house. There is a continuity of history with them. People’s gardening history and people’s family history of gardening,” she added.

Campion said she frequently walks the older neighborhoods of west Petaluma and the scent of daphne always finds her nose, even in the dark.

One of the reasons daphne may be found flourishing in old gardens is that they don’t like direct sun and older gardens frequently have taller trees that provide a dappled sunlight that daphne adores.

Alex Ivancevich, a plant specialist with SPRIG Bennett Valley Gardens in Santa Rosa, said he’s a big fan even though the nursery where he works currently doesn’t have daphne in stock.

“It’s truly one of the top perfume-smelling plants anywhere, right up there with jasmine,’ said Ivancevich, who also had his heart broken by a daphne that just abruptly died on him. ”And there are those that will catch your nose before your eyes.”

The variety of daphne that is so bewitching in February and March is Daphne odora. But there are other varieties that have been bred to bloom later.

Megan McConnell, a spokeswoman for Monrovia, a major grower and nursery supplier based in Oregon, said they have developed a popular new Daphne odora “Manzulzay” popularly dubbed Banana Split.

It has nice variegated foliage with a wide yellow edge. Rose-pink buds open to white, sweetly fragrant flowers. It blooms in late winter and early spring and reaches a symmetrical size of 4 feet by 4 feet.

As with all daphnes, you should allow the soil to dry slightly before watering and keep them out of the full sun.

Another winter odora is Perfume Princess, found in many nurseries and garden centers.

It is the earliest and longest flowering of the daphnes, which are known for delivering a short, but sweet bloom. They produce a profusion of very large flower clusters with deep pink buds that open to a blush pink and age to white.

The fragrance is reminiscent of a light citrus and its gently arching foliage looks nice near a window, an entryway or a pathway.

“The odoras are the fussy ones that have that amazing fragrance. The big thing with those is they have to be in the perfect spot, especially if you have hot dry summers. You do not want any hot sun on it. And then also it needs to be in moist but well-drained soil,” McConnell said.

She recommends forking up the whole bed or a big spot around the hole and adding a lot of dark compost, particularly if you have clay soil. Breaking up the soil assists in drainage.

If you don’t have big trees they do tend to do better on the north or northeast side of the house, she added.

While the bloom is often short with daphne, its leaves remain an attractive evergreen addition to the garden throughout the year.

McConnell said there’s a more forgiving daphne if you just can’t produce the right conditions for odora. It’s Daphne “Eternal Fragrance,” a new breed with intensely scented white blooms that show up in spring and continue flushing all the way through autumn. It can take full sun.

With daphne, do your best, don’t smother it with attention and know it may not be a love that lasts your lifetime.

“Many times it just depends on the plant,” Constantini said. “ It’s idiosyncratic to your plant. It’s a personality order or disorder. Many times it will drop all of its leaves after it blooms, but they will come back. They just do that. It’s not always, and it’s not every plant. It’s just a very unpredictable plant.”

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 707-521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com.