How to grow Chimonanthus praecox, or wintersweet. There's quite a few things to consider!

This week on The Horti-Culturalists we take a close look at Stephen's wonderfully established specimen of Chimonanthus praecox, commonly known as Wintersweet. And who knew there were quite so many things to consider when deciding to give this plant a go in your garden! One of Stephen's common mantras about plants in his garden is: 'does it pay its way?!' Well, the jury is hung on this one! From contemplating it's size, its relative dullness for most of the year, difficultly in guaranteeing you have a plant with good colour and fragrance, to making sure you prune it correctly, the wonderful fragrance at an often bleak time of year comes with many caveats! Stephen's planting around this large shrub is going through a transition so we'll look at what he was doing compared to what he's trying now. From marauding rabbits to a long and difficult juvenile phase, we cover most of life's cycle in this episode!
We mention the giant fennel, or Ferula communis, and you can see our video on that amazing plant here:    • Great winter foliage plants: Ferula commun...  
We also mention cyclamen and we made a seasonal video about 10 species Stephen grows which you can see here:    • How to grow species Cyclamen: 10 species t...  
You can watch our video on Trilliums here:    • How to grow Trilliums: these delightful wo...  
And if you wanted to try and take cutting of your Wintersweet you could watch our how to video on all things propagation by cuttings here:    • How to take & propagate cuttings: a Stephe...