This shrub is in the entrance to the Arboretum.

Purchased from J Parkers, Old Trafford, Manchester in 2008.

Winter Beauty is a cultivar of Lonicera x purpusii which was raised by Alf Alford, Hillier’s foreman, in 1966.

Lonicera x purpusii is a cross between two Chinese species Lonicera fragrantissima and Lonicera standishii that arose spontaneously at Darmstadt Botanic Gardens Hessen, Germany in the 1923.

Growing to 2.5 m tall and broad, it is a somewhat untidy shrub with ovate leaves and small paired cream/yellow flowers in winter. The flowers are strongly fragrant with the typical honeysuckle scent.

In a favourable environment it may be evergreen but is otherwise deciduous. In the latter case, the flowers are borne on the bare branches.

‘Winter Beauty’ is a recipient of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.