How To Grow Sweet Box

Sweet box, otherwise known as Christmas box, is a top hardy evergreen that will suit any garden.

- Graham Rice

WHEN I first went to work at Kew Gardens, long ago, I was very good at cutting the grass neatly but I didn’t know much about plants. So as I approached the potting shed on my first day I was stopped in my tracks by the delicious fragrance coming from...where?

One of the more experienced staff took me to the gate and lifted the leaves of an evergreen shrub – revealing the small, powerfully scented white flowers of Sarcococca confusa hidden by the foliage.

I took a piece home and decades later I still have plants taken from that cutting.