Flowers of many hellebores are nestled close to the crown, beneath large leathery leaves, and thus are best viewed once the evergreen foliage has been removed. Typically, organized gardeners will remove leaves in December, long before flower buds grow fat and the chore becomes somewhat more difficult. In this garden, if there was ever a year…

Sorry, I cannot assure that daffodils and alliums will not be harmed by cold that will  arrive sooner or later in this so far very mild winter. Any local gardener who has been around for a few years has seen daffodils popping up in January, and has probably seen an occasional flower with a prolonged…

I will not be alarmed unless dogwoods and redbuds begin to flower in January (Azalea ‘Autumn Amethyst’, above) . In recent weeks I’ve cautiously described this early winter weather as only mild, but who am I fooling, temperatures into the sixties in northwestern Virginia in late December are more aptly defined as warm. More than…

The gardener understands that no year is typical, or average. Perhaps when final numbers are tabulated, the sum will nearly equal yearly averages, but that is only because extremes in both directions usually balance with only slight variations in the end. I suppose that there are parts of this planet where annual weather patterns are closely…

Bees are not expected in this northwestern Virginia garden in mid December, but here they are. There have been scattered freezes and consistent frosts for a month, but daytime temperatures have been mild, and this week a few days have climbed into the sixties. After two cold winters, I have no complaint. In addition to…

Fans of snow covered holidays will be disappointed, it seems, by mild temperatures in recent weeks and more forecast for the week ahead. I prefer camellias to snow, and with each week in December warmer than the preceding one, the chance that camellias will flower through the month appears likely as buds swell in warm…

With mild temperatures this afternoon, I managed sufficient energy to gather and shred leaves that buried hellebores, heucheras (below), and a few other low growing perennials that do not go completely dormant in winter. Deep piles of leaves remain under trees and shrubs on the garden’s southern edge that borders forest, but these will be…

Admittedly, I am easily entertained, and satisfied by nearly any bauble that ornaments the winter garden. I suppose there is no good purpose in planting ‘Winter Sun’, ‘Charity’, and ‘Underway’ mahonias (Mahonia x media) in the garden for winter flowers, since the three are difficult to distinguish, one from the others. Flowers and foliage are close…

If they could, they would. Have flowers through the winter, of course, and clearly most do not suspect the range of flowers that are possible through the dark and cold winter months. There is nothing magical about it, and certainly no skill or wisdom is required to have flowers every day through the winter in…