Daphne ‘ Perfume Princess’

On entering the drive from Thompson Road a lovely group of daphnes can be seen on the slope on the left. Among these are some plants of Daphne ‘Dapjur01’ or ‘Perfume Princess’ - a most successful hybrid of the 21st century, with arguably the sweetest and freshest of all daphne fragrances. It also has the longest flowering season and the most floriferous plants. The flowers, in clusters on each branch tip over a rosette of smooth evergreen leaves (but as the plant matures growing in the leaf axils all along the branch) are rosy in bud, opening into white stars.

Cultivars of the plant’s parents, D. bholua from the Himalaya (in cultivation in this country only in the 1930s) and D. odora, introduced from China in 1771, are growing alongside our plant of the month. These are the deservedly popular D. bholua ‘Jacqueline Postill’ and D. odora ‘Aureomarginata’.

D. ‘Perfume Princess’ is the work of plant breeder, Mark Jury of Taranaki, New Zealand, who has received the Royal Horticultural society’s prestigious Veitch Memorial Medal for his contribution to horticulture.