My book says they "tend not to be long lived", if that's any help

Oh well... annoying but there you go!

Ours lasted about the same length of time too.

Interesting, I did not appreciate that. Thanks for the responses.

I have one that is 15yrs old and a neighbour has one going on 20yrs. I seem to remember previous ones lasting about 10/12 yrs though.

Mine is about 12, but it hasn't yet produced viable seed. When it does, I expect it to die after a year or two. I have noticed such result on three occasions over the years, and I've yet to find it confirmed by research, but it's almost as if the seedlings underneath the parent plant cause it problems. Daphne seed often takes a couple of years to germinate, so it's not the setting seed which is the drain on its system, rather the pressure of the kids below growing on the parent's nerves and draining it of energy! Root rot on damp sites can kill an old plant. They are woodlanders, and require a well-drained site, but not one which dries out
Phil J

Well my D.m.roseum was in well drained moisture retentive soil. there have been no babies ever underneath it and it had berried every year since it was planted, when we did the border about 12 years ago. It died this winter, as did all its offspring through out the garden strangely enough. Now the white fowered, yellow berried ones which are about 3 years younger have all survived and are covered in fruit again.

For a number of years now ours were a reliable source of seed supply for the SRGC seed exchange. Snails loved the fleshy coating on thje seeds and it was just a question of picking the clean seeds up off the floor! As I could not find all of the seeds we did have seedlings growing beneath the shrubs and these all took kindly to being potted up.