Days after flowers of camellias and azaleas turned to brown with temperatures falling into the upper teens (Fahrenheit), flowers of fatsias (Fatsia japonica ‘Spider’s Web’, below) are declining in the cold. I’m delighted that the marginally cold hardy fatsia has survived three winters without protection, but expect pollinated flowers will never develop into fruits and seeds with freeze damage inevitable flowering so late in the year.

Flowers of the fatsia closest to the house were nibbled by deer in recent weeks, though foliage appears to be resistant since I do not spray it with a repellent. If temperatures should someday fall to near zero, it’s likely I’ll cover the three fatsias along with Schefflera and other tender plants that are questionable. But at five above, leaves curl downward for protection, returning as temperatures rise to the upper twenties.

In the interval of several weeks between flowers fading from the common witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) and first flowers of Ozark witch hazels (Hamamelis vernalis), mahonias and several hellebores provide the most color in the garden. Flowers of the hybrid mahonias (now Berberis x hortensis ‘Winter Sun’, below) were not damaged in the recent cold, though lower flowers on the racemes are beginning to fade while others will continue into January.