Carpenteria Californica

Large, gleaming, pure white scented flowers with conspicuous yellow stamens open in early summer on this lovely Californian shrub, the only one in its genus. Making a dense, bushy, evergreen shrub with glossy, dark-green, narrow foliage, it prefers a warm sheltered spot, ideally against a wall, although in mild areas it can be grown in the open garden and although it is normally evergreen, it may lose some of its leaves in a cold winter. Good fertile seed is rarely set.