Plant: Fragrant Sweetbox
Sweetbox · Sarcococca ruscifolia
Size: 3 gal
Light
Bloom
Mature size
More about this plant
Fragrant sweet box is a slow growing broadleaf evergreen shrub or tall groundcover, dense and irregularly rounded at 3 to 4 feet tall and wide, with simple glossy leathery dark green ovate leaves. Fragrant milky white flowers open in small racemes from late winter into early spring, followed by round red drupes that persist into winter and ripen to black. It grows in deep to partial shade in organically rich, acid soil that is well drained but moist, tolerating occasional dryness. It is deer resistant, tolerates heavy shade, draws songbirds, and has no known major pests beyond occasional scale, which makes it one of the few reliable evergreens for dry shade under trees.
- Full Shade
- Grows to 4 ft tall and 4 ft wide
- Blooms in winter, spring
- Hardy in USDA zones 7-9
- Evergreen foliage
Plant description
Fragrant sweet box is a slow growing broadleaf evergreen shrub or tall groundcover, dense and irregularly rounded at 3 to 4 feet tall and wide, with simple glossy leathery dark green ovate leaves. Fragrant milky white flowers open in small racemes from late winter into early spring, followed by round red drupes that persist into winter and ripen to black. It grows in deep to partial shade in organically rich, acid soil that is well drained but moist, tolerating occasional dryness. It is deer resistant, tolerates heavy shade, draws songbirds, and has no known major pests beyond occasional scale, which makes it one of the few reliable evergreens for dry shade under trees.
- Flowers
- Fragrant milky white unisexual flowers in small racemes open from late winter into early spring.
- Foliage
- Lustrous dark green leaves, ovate, sharp-pointed, somewhat leathery, evergreen, to 2 1/2 inches long.
- Fruit
- Round red drupes under an inch across persist into winter and ripen to black.
- Light
- Deep Shade, Dappled/Filtered Light
- Pruning
- Prune in spring after flowering to maintain attractive shape and desired height.
- Native range
- Western China and Tibet
