Nothing is quite as captivating as fragrant flowering shrubs adorning our wintertime landscapes. Unfortunately, most choice shrubs go unnoticed. We are familiar with the blowzy, yet scentless, blooms of Camellia japonica and the screaming yellow bells of forsythia but often forget that other evergreen and deciduous shrubs offer delightfully aromatic and interesting flowers.

This winter, why not rediscover shrubs that are visually gorgeous and olfactorily stimulating. You might even want to include them in your landscape.

From evergreens

Osmanthus, also called False Hollies or Fragrant Tea Olives, are intensely scented evergreen shrubs. The sugary-fruity smell from Osmanthus forces garden visitors to stop and inhale deeply. Distinguishable by their opposite leaves, (remember "O" for Osmanthus and opposite; whereas, true hollies have alternating leaves) these hardy shrubs are very tolerant of difficult planting sites and are almost trouble-free once established.

Welcome additions to our gardens throughout Zone 7, Osmanthus fragrans, with its tiny white flowers, and O. fragrans aurantiacus, with similar light orange blossoms, can become small trees if left unpruned. Native O. americanus, growing up to 30 feet in height, can be found from Virginia to Florida, but the 3 feet tall O. delavayi from China may better suit limited landscapes. Osmanthus x fortunei (O. fragrans x O. heterophyllus) is slightly tender but well worth planting in a protected spot.

Mahonia are architecturally stunning evergreens that produce upright sunny yellow spikes of flowers during winter. The blooms later turn into downward hanging clusters of frosted blue berries, giving the plants their common name of grape hollies.

Ranging from low growing ground covers to 10-foot statuesque focal points, Mahonia are tolerant of shade and make great specimen plantings. Perhaps the best fragrance exudes from Mahonia bealei or the Leatherleaf Mahonia, which begins flowering in early winter.

Sarcococca is an old-fashioned plant often called Christmas Box or Sweet Box. Shiny and dark green-leafed, this shrub may be forgotten in dry, deep shade until it flowers in early winter with intensely sweet perfume wafting from the tiniest white flowers. One of the best for our gardens is Sarcococca confusa, a 3- to 5- foot shrub that often holds the previous year's glossy black berries with the current year's flowers.

Daphne is the heartbreaker that we keep planting for its unforgettable winter fragrance. Fickle Daphne desire perfect soil, hate to be transplanted and will turn up their toes if the amount of water is wrong, but we have to have them. It's that strong fruity scent from pinkish or white blooms in late January to February that's so pleasing. Most garden centers offer Daphne odora and Daphne x burkwoodii, which can reach 3 to 4 feet high and wide.

Pieris is known as Mountain Andromeda or sometimes lily-of-the-valley shrubs. Another shade lover, this evergreen 4- to 6-foot tall plant's flowers dangle in long panicles of little white bells, emitting a pleasant faint bouquet. Pieris shrubs are often grown for their fiery new growth, but for a change search for Pieris japonica 'Valley Valentine' with rosy pink flowers or one of the variegated leafed varieties.

To deciduous

Viburnum ranges from evergreen to deciduous, short to tall. Some shrubs bloom in the dead of winter. Viburnum tinus is a rounded, medium-sized evergreen seen with abundant, slightly fragrant flower clusters from January to February. For heady fragrance look for the upright deciduous Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn' with strongly sweet-smelling pink flowers.

Chimonanthus praecox or Wintersweet was in full flower in my garden this past Christmas. It blooms throughout the winter. Reaching 10 to 15 feet, Wintersweet has the most richly colored golden, waxy, cupped flowers with purple centers that stream perfume into the entire garden. It prefers drier sites and full sun to part shade.

Hamamelis is the scientific name for witch hazels. Often described as small trees, witch hazels are so slow growing that you may decide to keep them as shrubs, especially if you delight in cut branches for indoors.

The flowers' elongated petals arrange themselves in clusters along the branches, resembling long-legged sea creatures on a coral reef. Not all witch hazels are fragrant, but if you find one that is, such as Hamamelis mollis 'Pallida', grab it.

Corylopsis is also known as winter hazel and often confused with the previous two plants. A very desirable 4- to 6-foot shrub is Corylopsis pauciflora or Buttercup Winter Hazel with pale lemon-yellow pendulous flowers drooping from thin stems.

We know Lonicera as honeysuckles. Imagine the amazing bouquet of the Winter Honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima. A huge rangy shrub, this woody plant is an old-fashioned favorite for its tiny white flowers.

Calycanthus floridus is our native sweetshrub, Carolina allspice or Sweet Betsy. Blossoms smell like strawberries to some and cloves to others on this unusual blood-red flowered shrub. A new yellow-flowered form, 'Athens', is just as delightfully scented.

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