The potted plant most worth getting: on par with the peony, beautiful in both flower and leaf, filling the whole house with fragrance

Introduction

Green potted plants are essential decorations for home life. They beautify the room, freshen the air, and delight the mind and nurture the character. Keeping some flowers and plants at home brings many benefits. "Flower Voice Potted Plant Diary, Issue 840" introduces you to a plant on par with the peony that is very much worth growing.

Today's Star

The peony is the "king of flowers," so anything on par with it must be no ordinary plant. This plant is called "Jinbian Ruixiang" (golden-edged winter daphne), a variant of the winter daphne tree. It is a traditional famous flower highly esteemed in China, known for its four excellences of "color, fragrance, form, and charm," and is praised with the saying, "The peony is the national beauty and heavenly fragrance, but the golden-edged daphne is the finest of all."

Golden-Edged Winter Daphne

The golden-edged winter daphne gets its name because the edges of its leaves are golden. Its plant form is attractive and it stays evergreen all year round. The outside of the flowers is light purplish-red and the inside is flesh-red. Each flower is made up of dozens of small florets forming a "spherical" shape. The flower color turns from green to purplish-red and opens from the outside inward. The flowering period is around the Spring Festival and lasts until May, with continuous blooming for more than two months.

Fragrance Spreading in All Directions

What people praise most about the golden-edged winter daphne is its floral fragrance. This plant's flowers are extremely fragrant. Placed on the second floor, the fragrance can be smelled from the first floor; placed on the balcony, the whole house is filled with scent. It truly is a "single bloom that can perfume a whole room." It is a natural fragrance, non-toxic, and refreshing to smell. You can even skip the air freshener.

Easy to Cultivate

The golden-edged winter daphne is an evergreen small shrub belonging to the woody plants. Its place of origin is in China, and it is highly adapted to our country's geography and climate, so it is very easy to cultivate. For home potting, use a 1:1 mix of garden soil and nutrient soil, making sure drainage is good. It is shade-tolerant, so indoor care is no problem. Water when the soil is dry and wait when it is not; it is even easier to care for than pothos or spider plant. Whoever grows it will know.

Excellent Material for Bonsai

Common potted plants such as pothos, spider plant, and succulents are either not very ornamental or not easy to cultivate. By comparison, the golden-edged winter daphne is very much worth getting. It is beautiful in both flower and leaf, can be grown as a green plant and also admired for its flowers, and is very easy to care for. Flower lovers with good skill can even prune and shape it into a bonsai tree. Try it when growing flowers in spring.