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Camellia sasanqua 'Yuletide'

Today is Bloom Day, and I’m on board this time. Bloom Day started three years ago at May Dreams Garden; learn more here.

Despite a crazy winter, a few tenacious winter bloomers are showing their stuff in my garden. I didn’t bother to take photos of the battered pansies that have sad little blooms. Instead, I focused on a few fantastic shrubs and one perennial that are always the first to remind me that winter isn’t really all that bad…and that spring isn’t all that far away.

Enjoy!

This Yuletide Camellia was a Christmas gift from my brother-in-law about 6 years ago. It was a 1 gallon plant that I kept in a mixed container by the front door for the first 3 years. During that time, in a protected SW exposure, it bloomed regularly around Christmas. Now, happily plugging along, planted in the earth,  in an area that gets protected full sun throughout the day, it has turned into a January/February bloomer instead. Despite the bad break it had this winter, it’s blooms are still lovely.

Witch Hazel in January

During the snow storms earlier this winter, I became concerned that my resident hummingbird pair might be having trouble finding food. They visit my garden regularly and are usually battling off others to defend this delicious, organic territory that provides them with nectar, aphids and fresh running water. In December, with the ground covered with snow, all the birds were having difficulty. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to see one of them flitting through my Witch Hazel the moment its first blooms opened earlier this week.

One thing to consider when buying a Witch Hazel is whether it releases its leaves or not in the fall. Mine, unfortunately does not. I prefer to see the blooms standing out beautifully against bare stems, and in the past I would clip off all the old leaves to create this effect. But, now that the shrub is much larger, I enjoy it for what it is — full of brown leaves and all. When I take cuttings for the indoors, which not only fill the house with bright yellow sunshine but also sweet fragrance reminders of spring, I do clip off the leaves.

Pink Helleborus Buds

Perhaps it is cheating to post this one, but because the flower buds are starting to show, I’m going to claim it anyway. My Heronswood Doublepink Hellebore is always the first one to start poking up blooms by early January. This beautiful perennial not only provides unique evergreen leaves year-round, but it blooms and blooms and blooms. And, I don’t need to worry about a freeze. If the blooms freeze up, they bounce right back once the weather warms — petals and all. I paid a pretty penny for a 4″ start of this plant at the real Heronswood on Bainbridge about 6 years ago, and it has really paid off. The Heronswood single Deep Purple isn’t far behind this one, but I’ll save that for another bloom day when it is showing off just a bit more.

Chains of Garrya flowers

And last, but not least, is my Garrya elliptica. This is its best year ever. Garrya is an evergreen shrub (sometimes small tree) that isn’t as well known as the aforementioned evergreen, winter-blooming Camellia. Yet, I think every garden should have one. I purchased this one as a tiny, twiggy, kind-of-pathetic one gallon about four years ago. I knew it was a relatively slow grower, but I’m a gardener, I have patience, right? Well, I’ve gone through one year with one bloom, another year with no blooms at all, and finally it now seems this plant is happy to really put on a show. Not only is it blooming, but it is firing up multiple feet of growth each year now. Perhaps it likes the supplemental water I’ve been giving it more regularly during the dry summer. Perhaps it just needed some time to get comfortable. I’m not sure. Regardless, if you’re thinking of adding a Garrya to your garden and have access to larger ones to start, I suggest spending a bit more and going bigger to begin with…unless you’re really patient.

Garrya Bloom Up Close

I haven’t seen my hummingbirds going for the Garrya yet, but I imagine they’ve been out there. The chains of fluffy white flowers, which can get over 18″ long, have tiny little nectar openings that the hummers have attacked with a hungry vengence in years past. I’ll have to keep a better eye out over the next few days. Once the rains come, Garrya blooms usually fade quickly.  Given the fantastic length of this year’s blooms, I’m fairly confident I have a male plant here. That’s good news; they’re the showy ones!

So what’s “almost there”? Well, my Sarcococca is just about ready to open. I went sniffing around the shrubs to see if I could find any actually blossoming, but I think that will come next week. More Hellebores are also close. Flowering Winter Currant is starting to show bud case swelling. Bulbs aren’t making much of an appearance yet, but I suppose some early Teta a tetes, Primula and Hyacinth will be showing up sooner than later. It looks like my Daphne odora is also close. It took quite a leaf-burning turn this winter, but the buds haven’t lost hope. The true test will be whether it blooms and then gives up the ghost after or not. And, will my Azara bloom? I sure hope so. Sure, it’s year one in the ground in my garden, but it put on loads of vegetative growth. Hopefully, there’s a flowering bloom in there somewhere as well!

Tags: Bloom Day, camellia, garrya, hellebore, heronswood, winter bloomers, witch hazel

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 10:04 am and is filed under Bloom Day, winter garden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.