How to Grow and Care for Wintersweet

Wintersweet Care

Here are the main care requirements for growing wintersweet.

• Plant a container-grown nursery specimen or ball-and-burlap shrub in the spring or summer.
• Choose a site with full sun.
• Dig a hole twice as wide as the root ball or twice the depth of the container. Place the plant in the hole and fill it with soil that is amended with compost, peat, or another organic material.
• Water wintersweet liberally in hot temperatures and droughts.
• Mulch the shrub’s root zone to a depth of 3 inches out to the drip line but keep the mulch away from the trunk. This will aid in moisture retention while the plant is watered deeply until it is established—about one full season.

Light

To encourage your wintersweet to produce more blooms, plant it in a location that receives full sun.

Soil

Wintersweet thrives in moist, fertile, well-drained soil. It is not fussy about pH, growing equally well in acidic, neutral, or alkaline soils.

Water

Water deeply and regularly until established. Once established, regular rainfall will usually fulfill the shrub’s needs. However, you can still water deeply but somewhat infrequently to avoid overwatering. Water more frequently during the summer and in cases of high temperatures or drought.

Temperature and Humidity

Wintersweet is hardy in USDA zones 7 to 9, although there are cases of it growing in zone 6 in protected areas.

Fertilizer

Fertilizer is not needed but can help with flowering. A 5-30-5 liquid fertilizer will help produce more blooms on your wintersweet. Follow product instructions for the correct application amount and process.

Types of Wintersweet

There are two popular cultivars of C. praecox and a related species:

• ‘Grandiflorus’ offers sweetly-scented butter-yellow flowers with striped maroon centers.
• ‘Luteus’ has fragrant gold flowers and dark green leaves.
• Chimonanthus nitens is a related species that features evergreen leaves and white or pale yellow flowers but lacks the stronger scent of C. praecox.

Pruning

With established plants, wintersweet has seasonal maintenance needs each winter after the blooms have fallen off. The shrub’s oldest stems should be cut down to almost ground level to ensure new, healthy growth during the coming year. This will help to bolster the number of flowers that come on next winter’s stems and keep the shrub at a manageable size and in good health. This shrub looks best if allowed to naturally cascade, so don’t attempt to shape it too strictly.

Propagating Wintersweet

Since wintersweet grown from seed can take nearly 15 years to flower, the best way to propagate wintersweet is by creating stem cuttings or layering.

For stem cuttings, take these steps:

1. Using clean, sharp garden shears, create cuttings by snipping off 5-inch lengths, about 2 inches below a flower node on a healthy softwood stem.
2. Dip the end of the cutting in rooting hormone.
3. Place each stem into a terra-cotta pot filled with seed-starting mix, right up to the nodes. Keep moist.
4. Within about six weeks, you should notice roots. When the cuttings are solidly rooted, transplant them into the garden.

For layering, take these steps:

• Bend down a stem until the middle of it hits the ground.
• Secure the flexible branch down into the soil (so the soil covers it) using a U-shaped pin.
• Place the other loose end of the stem vertically in the soil and stake it into place for stability.
• Wait for both parts or one part to develop roots.
• Carefully free the new root system and stem to plant in another location or leave in place to extend the shrub’s coverage.

How to Grow Wintersweet From Seed

Mature seeds of wintersweet can be planted in small pots.

• Fill pots with potting mix.
• Place pots in an outdoor cold frame to germinate and sprout.
• Be patient. Seed-sown wintersweet plants can take 10 to 15 years or more before they reach flowering maturity.

Potting and Repotting Wintersweet

Though not common, container culture is possible for these plants, especially in their early years before they grow to an unwieldy size. A large, well-draining container filled with standard potting mix will serve adequately but potted plants need to be positioned in a sheltered location to overwinter. These are slow-growing shrubs, so repotting is necessary only every few years when the plant becomes root-bound in its container.

Overwintering

Young plants may require some winter protection against cold, in the form of a thick layer of mulch over the root zone, and possibly a shield of burlap in zones 6 and 7. After two or three years, the shrub should be mature enough to no longer need this winter protection, even in freezing temperatures.

How to Get Wintersweet to Bloom

Bloom Months

The bloom time for wintersweet varies a bit, depending on where it is grown. At the northern end of its hardiness range, it typically blooms in February and March, but further south it will bloom in December through January.

How Long Does Wintersweet Bloom?

The length of wintersweet’s blooms depends on the winter temperatures. Sometimes flowering lasts until the early spring.

What Do Wintersweet Flowers Look and Smell Like?

Wintersweet’s 1-inch blooms are waxy, translucent yellow flowers along each branch. Wintersweet is considered to have one of the most beautiful aromas of any flower, though the sweet, delicate, somewhat lemony smell lasts for only about a month. The smell is strong late into its bloom and during warm winter nights causing the volatile oils to vaporize.

How to Encourage More Blooms

To encourage wintersweet to bloom, make sure it is adequately fed and watered, and that it gets sufficient sunlight. Yearly pruning will also ensure good blooming.

Untimely frost may kill flower buds and cause poor blooming. The shrub generally recovers and will bloom normally the following year. In borderline climates (zones 6 and 7), it helps to plant wintersweet in a spot protected from harsh winter winds.

Caring for Wintersweet After It Blooms

In the spring after blooming, the oldest stems should be pruned just about down to the ground. Also, remove crossing or diseased stems after flowering. This promotes an abundance of blooms for the next season.

Common Problems With Wintersweet

This shrub is largely free of pests, diseases, and other cultural problems. But be on the lookout for signs of distress.

Sparse and Leggy

As wintersweet ages, it may become somewhat sparse and leggy, and often too large for its space. If this happens, perform a severe rejuvenation pruning by eliminating as much as a third of all older stems after the flowering period is over. Shortening the remaining stems will also force the plant to become denser.

Wilting and Yellowing Leaves

Although wintersweet loves water, too much watering can make leaves turn yellow, wilt, and fall off. Stems will also feel mushy if the shrub is overwatered.