The most worthwhile potted plant to get: as famous as the peony, beautiful in both flower and leaf, its fragrance fills the whole house

Introduction

Green plants in pots are an essential decorative touch for home life. They beautify the room, freshen the air, and also lift the spirits and calm the mind. Keeping some flowers and greenery at home has many benefits. "Flower Voice Potted Plant Diary, Issue 840" introduces you to a plant that is as famous as the peony and very much worth growing.

Today's star

The peony is the "king of flowers," so anything that can stand alongside it must have quite a pedigree. This plant is called "Jinbian Ruixiang" (gold-edged winter daphne), a variant of the winter daphne tree. It is a traditional famous flower highly praised in China, known for its four excellences: "color, fragrance, form, and charm." There is a saying in its praise: "The peony is national beauty and heavenly fragrance, but the gold-edged daphne is the finest of all."

Gold-edged winter daphne

The gold-edged winter daphne gets its name because the edges of its leaves are golden. The plant has an attractive shape and stays evergreen all year round. The outside of the flowers is pale purplish-red, while the inside is flesh-red. Each flower is made up of dozens of tiny florets forming a "ball" shape. The flower color shifts from green to purplish-red, opening from the outside inward. The flowering period is around the Spring Festival and lasts until May, blooming continuously for more than two months.

Fragrance spilling everywhere

What people praise most about the gold-edged winter daphne is its floral scent. This plant's flowers are extremely fragrant. Placed on the second floor, the scent can still be smelled on the first floor; placed on the balcony, the whole house is filled with its fragrance. It truly is "one plant can perfume a whole room." It is a natural scent, non-toxic, refreshing to the heart and mind when smelled, and it saves you even buying air freshener.

Easy to cultivate

The gold-edged winter daphne is an evergreen small shrub, a woody plant. Its place of origin is in China, and it is very well adapted to China's geography and climate, so it is easy to cultivate. For home potting, use a 1:1 mix of garden soil and nutrient soil, just make sure drainage is good. It is shade-tolerant, so keeping it indoors is no problem. Water when the soil is dry and don't bother when it isn't; it is even easier to care for than pothos or spider plant, as anyone who grows it knows.

Excellent material for bonsai

Common potted plants such as pothos, spider plant, and succulents either are not very ornamental or are not easy to cultivate. By comparison, the gold-edged winter daphne is a plant very much worth getting: beautiful in both flower and leaf, it can be grown as greenery and also enjoyed for its flowers, and it is very easy to care for. Gardeners with good skills can even prune and shape it into a bonsai tree. If you are growing flowers in spring, give it a try.