Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. January.

In this cold , two- faced calendar month of snow , ice and gale , my puppy love with my garden always dissolves . Other blogger show beautiful scene of staring white C . I detest the stuff and nonsense . And then there are dainty shots of seedheads rimed with frost frost . We have had more hoar frost than common this winter , but it is always company by freezing fog . The sight of all that parky dankness has me hurrying back under the eiderdown .

All twelvemonth round I see the garden through rose- coloured spectacles and love it passionately . But in January , it ’ s as though , if it were a man I would wake up from my infatuation and suddenly point out plebeian straggly hair , blackheads , pinched hairsbreadth , a uncouth shirt , a tie with egg on it and the noisy slurping of soup . That ’ s how my garden seems to me correctly now ; thoroughly unkempt , a bit like Les Patterson . But still , the 15th is Garden Bloggers ’ Bloom Day so I have been prowling round to see if I can get any salad days to rekindle my love affaire with the garden .

If anything can work the magic it is the spidery flower of Witch Hazel . They opt acid grease but if you may supply plenty of wet they will cope with inert soil , but they must not be too wet in winter . They really command that well- lie with horticultural oxymoron ‘ moist but well drained dirt ’ . Last class was very dry , so some of them are not as floriferous as they could be . But still they are lovely . I am still waiting for the primrose yellow ‘ Pallida ’ and last of all , the darker yellowish ‘ Arnold ’s Promise ’ to open . But to be lead on with , Hamemelis x intermedia‘Vesna ’ named after the ancient Slavic goddess of spring is one of my favourites . It also has glorious fall foliage .

Hamamelis x intermedia‘Vesna’

Hamamelis x intermedia‘Vesna ’

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘ Livia ’ has lovely wine- red flowers .

Hamamelis x intermedia‘Livia ’ .

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Vesna’

Hamamelis x intermedia‘Vesna’

Hamamelis x intermedia‘Jelena ’ has gorgeous coppery orangeness heyday .

Hamamelis x intermediaJelena ’

Cathy atramblinginthegardenblog clearly adheres to the philosophy that a girl can never have too many Witch Hazels . I think she is proper and what could be more inspire than a head trip to discover yet one more ? I think it should be an annual January event . They are grafted so they are expensive , but still they are cheaper than the Xmas tree which I bewilder out after a week . The tripper home with one in the car is blissful as the warmth brings out the gorgeous fragrance . My find this twelvemonth is the stunningHamamelis x intermedia‘Orange Peel ’ . It even smack vaguely of marmalade . Now can you get any more orangey than that ?

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Livia’.

Hamamelis x intermedia‘Livia’.

Hamamelis intermedia‘Orange Peel ’

I have n’t planted it yet . I was going to put it behind this evergreenSarcococca confusawith its splendidly fragrant little pick efflorescence and shiny unripe leaves .

But then I realise the obvious place for it is with the orangey grassAnemanthelelessiana .

Hamamelis x intermedia Jelena'

Hamamelis x intermediaJelena’

I have sex sarcococcas with their spicy fragrance which spreads round the garden . Ideally I would wish a hedging of it like the one line the path from the car park at Anglesey Abbey . I have three plants ofSarcococca confusawhich makes quite a large bush . Sarcococcahookkeriana var . digynais my favorite . It pass water a pocket-size George Walker Bush and the leaves are finer . The prime are touch with garden pink . These plants like shade . The only problem with them is remembering how many oxygen ’s and c ’s they have . in person , I guess 4 c ’s is a bit excessive .

Sarcococca humilisvar.digyna

Another flora worth perplex out of bed for in January is the Wintersweet , Chimonanthus praecox . This amazing shrub comes from China . In January it bring about claw- like yellow flowers with maroon centres on its spare branch . Sometimes , as in the flora in Cambridge Botanical Gardens , the flowers are pale cream or almost blank . The spicy smell is recherche and one small twig of it will make full a elbow room with the most luscious fragrancy . It needs the warmth of a south rampart to acquire an abundance of heyday . I know many mass are reluctant to give it such a privileged position as it is so slow in summer . I grow aClematis viticellaup it for summertime interest . There are plenty of other flowers to enchant us in summertime but nothing like chimonanthus to root on up the gloomiest sentence of the year . I grow mine from seed but I don ’ t advocate this . It grows promptly from come but it take at least 7 or 8 years to blossom . Mine is about 18 year old now . When I dig it up to work it here it sulked for about 3 geezerhood and refused to flower but now it is back to its full glory .

Hamamelis intermedia ‘Orange Peel’

Hamamelis intermedia‘Orange Peel’

I also haveChimonanthus praecox‘Grandiflorus ’ which has large flowers but I do n’t call back it is as fragrant .

Mahonia‘Winter Sun is still going strong .

Mahonia x media‘Winter Sun ’

And the pinkish flowers ofViburnum bodnantense‘Charles Lamont ’ look good .

Viburnum bodnantense‘Charles Lamont ’

The flowers ofViburnum bodnantense‘Dawn ’ are a dark-skinned pink .

Viburnum bodnantense”Dawn ’

Much as I dislike January , I think February is an sheer delight and it will soon be here . The late afternoons will be light , the bird will be sing and there will be so many early spring blooms to delight us . February is Hellebore Heaven and galanthophiles like me can featherbed our unknown obsession . To keep me going until thenHellebore xericsmithii‘Shooting Star ’ is showing promise .

And so is this one . The January Anemone quinquefolia are fully undecided . And there are enough more to number very soon .

Sarcococca humilis var. digyna

Sarcococca humilisvar.digyna

Garden Bloggers ’ Bloom Day is hosted by Carol at Maydreamgardens , do go over there and see what everyone else has in bloom at the gloomiest meter of the year .

48 Responses toGarden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. January.

I sleep together your Hamamelis ! and notice that you are garden in perchance the same part of Suffolk as I am ?

I believe that Les Patterson is perhaps more akin to the grisly calendar month of November when all starts to go chop-chop downhill . Your January garden has made me smile Chloris . Your new enchantress hazel is a beauty and what a perfect partner you ’ve found for it . I ’m most smitten by ‘ Livia ’ too .

After reading the unveiling to your place , you storm me with all you have going on in your garden right now . I look up to the witch hazels and wish I could grow them here but no arcdegree of zonary abnegation on my part would permit that . I ’m impress by all the scented blossom you have too – that ’s something I postulate to pay more tending to in making my own plant choice .

Oh , you would not like my garden in winter . Yours is fertile and full of life history by my standards . I would say mine is a endearing wintertime wonderland , but lately it ’s a gray , icy wad ! But I so enjoyed your presentation , because that ’s how I palpate about winter , too . glad GBBD !

I accord with you about the gloom of January ! Les Patterson and the garden both look like they had a slight too much playfulness on new long time even . thank good you ’ve so many wintertime - blooming beauties to make this dark prison term of year bearable .

Mahonia x media ‘Winter Sun’