While noting various plants that remain unblemished by the recent low temperatures, I failed to inspect the brilliant yellow flowers of mahonias (Mahonia x media, now Berberis x hortensis, below) that were mentioned as a highlight of the snow-covered garden. A day earlier, all flowers remained intact, but after nighttime lows of five and nine degrees (Fahrenheit), only a few yellows remain in the racemes (below).

Of course, this damage is not unexpected, and by the slim chance that any flowers had been pollinated, there will be no berries. While occasional seedlings are found orienting from the late winter flowering leatherleaf mahonias (M. bealei or B. bealei), none have been discovered from the autumn into early winter flowering hybrids. The scarcity of active bees November into January in our area is a ready explanation.

Flowers of hellebores are temporarily buried beneath inches of snow, though milder temperatures and the possibility of rain in the coming week could bring them back into view. Flowers of vernal witch hazels (Hamamelis vernalis, below) have been tightly bundled for protection through this period of cold, but the spidery blooms should unfurl by early in the week (below).