Daphnes are pretty freaking amazing... this past summer was brutally hot and dry. And the daphnes ate it up. Not a drop of supplemental water, and not only did they thrive, they kept on flowering. They're also much hardier than most of the references would have you believe.

We've got nearly everything we list out in the garden, and they take the worst a zone 5 Michigan winter can throw at them without even blinking. Even better, they must be impressively toxic, because I've never seen an insect, deer, or rabbit so much as nibble on them.

Daphne's one great weakness is the disease phytophthora, which thrives in wet soil high in organic matter. If you have sandy soil, they'll be as happy as can be, and if you don't, a raised bed filled with sand is going to be your best bet.

As ornamental shrubs, daphnes are very nearly perfect. Most of them are evergreen, often with beautiful glossy foliage on a tight, mounded growth habit that any boxwood would kill for. Variegation is common and beautiful, and they boast some of the best fragrances out there.

Everything we offer produces a heavy flush of blooms in the spring, and most of them will then re-bloom in several flushes over the summer, and a few bloom pretty much continuously from early spring to well after the first few frosts. Growth habits range from tiny creepers an inch or two tall to robust 3-4 foot shrubs. There is a daphne for every garden.