Sarcococcas

Sarcococcas are slow growing evergreens that have sweetly scented flowers in the winter. They grow best in shade or part shade and will grow in any soil, thriving particularly on chalky soils. S. hookeriana Digyna has long narrow matt leaves, does not produce berries reliably but is the most sweet smelling. S. confusa and S. ruscifolia (presumably ours is the form chinensis) are extremely alike with dark green, glossy, wrinkled leaves and they will berry reliably with S. confusa having black berries while S. ruscifolia ultimately has dark red berries, although they do go through a black stage. Hort Week’s recent feature was wrong on these two. On the nursery shade is essential, as with Skimmias, to avoid producing chlorotic plants.