d. odora won't be reliably hardy outdoors north of zone 7 but not at all in zone 5. you could try one of the hardier species like d. retusa, d. tangutica or some of their hybrids.

Here is a link that might be useful: hardy daphnes

And yes, they are hard to keep alive. Not cause of disease or anything, at least not in my garden, but if the roots get disturbed AT ALL they croak. I've lost many babys potting them up or planting in the ground. Lost one potted one just by moving the pot. Have one still alive, and I don't dare move the pot or try to plant it in the ground. It lives happily without care and without much extra water.

Are you saying you are growing yours in a pot and it is doing well?

How do you winter it? With mine, the trunk just broke apart and rotted away.

In fact, when I dug it up to throw it away, there were earth worms that crawled their way into part of the trunk! Frustrating, not to say that parts of the bush came back in the spring rusty and dead..:-(

Mike

Every one that I've tried to plant in the ground has died immediately. My mother has one in the ground alive, another lived for years until moles dug under the roots. The only 2 I've kept alive for any length of time were potted. How do I over winter? I don't! I'm in Texas. They just stay outside. They are zero care plants... but tend to die if disturbed at all.

You scared me. Not only I disturbed mine, I disturbed it badly. I have a big one in a 12 inch pot, it's growing fine. This year I just bare rooted it first, cut off 1/3 of its original roots. And plant it back with gritty mix. It has been a week now, it's looking fine. I will let you guys know how it doing.

yellow thumb, I think you should be fine. Let us know.

Thanks for the kind wish, snasxs.

It has been two weeks, the leaves have been drooping a bit, but I watered it yesterday and it perked up today. Some flower buds are still growing bigger. I am keeping my fingers crossed for now.

I have 3 Daphne odora 'marginata' planted by the front of my ent.way. I live in a rural wooded setting but the scrubs get much broken sunlight much of the day. They have been there now 4 yrs. I'm on a gentle slope 2-3% so they have good drainage, n the substrate is mainly white sand, though I added peat to it when I planted them, around the roots n the large hole I had dug (mixed the peat with the nat. sand). The scrubs have done well, since, and have grown more horizontally than vertically. Almost like an elevated ground cover. During all of March the fragrance is overwhelming, to say the least!! The scrubs were a fairly good size when I bought them, but now 2 of them are 4' X 3' n one is 3' X 3'. Perhaps 15" high. Two winters ago I did has some leaf n much unopened flower cluster damage from sub-zero winter cold (-4 F, very unusual, btw here in Cent. inner coastal plain Va.) but the scrubs proper, recovered since. This past winters heavy snows, actually protected them from the cold, but we were only in the lower single digits which is typical here in rural Va. Brief, if you have them in an exposed cond. where winter cold can effect them, give them protection, especially in zone 6 or lower. I believe the only other plants I have that are as fragrant are some of my Mock Orange scrubs (e.g. Belle Etoile, P. Lewisii cv unknown at this time, Magnolia virginiana, the flowers smell like a bar of soap, very fresh!! (native to my place!!). Good drainage, n soil make up, location, are all important to many scrubs for their happiness.....n one more thing, is, if they are happy where they are, LEAVE THEM ALONE! Don't move them!! Good Luck!!

They just die sometimes. It's as simple as that. But another one and pray every summer.

If voles are eating any of your plants' roots, try using permtill, a course barrier that voles prefer not to eat. Moles eat grubs and worms, voles, aka "field mice", eat roots. You can read more at http://www.permatill.com/retail-locater.php .