Some plants can pack a wallop. It might be the breathtaking size or color of the blooms, the shape and texture of the foliage, an unusual form, or maybe just the plant’s rarity in Northwestern gardens that draws you in and makes you say, “Gotta  have that!”

This happened to me recently, and it was none of the above that made me stop and drool like a male menopause victim in front of a Harley shop.

It was simply the fragrance, a fragrance that hit me from yards away, captivated me and reeled me in.

If you’ve got sweet box in your garden, you’re probably enjoying that heady aroma right about now. When most of our flowering plants are months away from even a hint of offering up sweet smells and delicious scents, sweet box, or Sarcococca, is dishing it up in droves.

Sarcococca is a genus of about 16-20 flowering plants in the Buxaceae family, the same family that contains the common European boxwood, or Buxus sempervirens. You don’t ever want to confuse the two because this is where common names can get you in trouble and Latin names can save the day.

Leave the “sweet” off when enquiring at a nursery and you could end up going home with an entirely different plant.

European, or common, boxwood is a sun-loving evergreen shrub that’s most often found over-pruned into – you guessed it – box shapes. It also has an unfortunate but well-deserved reputation for smelling like male cat urine, especially in hot weather. Buxus microphylla, or little leaf boxwood, is reputed to lack that dubious quality. But neither of these boxwoods is going to give you the olfactory pleasure of sweet box, so always look for Sarcococca, not Buxus.

There are a handful of Sarcococca species readily available in local nurseries and they vary in height from about one or two feet to up to around six feet, but all have lance shaped, glossy evergreen leaves with sprays of tiny white or cream flowers. And I do mean tiny. Yet the fragrance that wafts up from these little miracles is giant redwood sized. Some plants have quiet beauty and understated elegance, and this in one, but its perfume will definitely get it noticed.

S. confusa and S. ruscifolia are taller varieties of sweet box, suitable for hedging. S. confusa’s flowers will turn to black berries, while S. ruscifolia will produce berries that start out red and ripen to black. A low growing variety suitable for edging flower beds is S. hookeriana humilis.

All Sarcococca except S. confusa have a reputation for throwing up lots of suckers, which isn’t a bad thing if you’re striving for a thick hedge.

Finally, the most important quality that makes Sarcococca a real gem in a woodland garden is that it’s a hardy and low-maintenance shade lover, even in deep shade. And because it’s slow growing, it won’t require as much cutting back and fiddling with as many other shrubs do.

Plant it near a door or beside a path you travel regularly so you can take advantage of its lush smell during these dismal winter days. If you close your eyes you might even imagine spring is around the corner.