hamamelis vernalis – Ramblin' through Dave's Garden

The scent of winter

Despite the horrid cold of recent days, the vernal witch hazel (Hamamelis vernalis, above) blooms on, though the ribbon-like petals curl tightly in the worst of the freeze for protection (below). My wife tells me that scents are muted by the cold, but I’ve never paid much attention to this because I’m generally resistant to…

Winter flowers, and more to come

This week, another warmer than usual winter is disguised by a heavy blanket of frost. On a cold, blustery January afternoon the garden’s flowers don’t make the shivering temperatures feel any warmer, but they promise that spring is nearer by the day. On average, the coldest temperatures of the winter are the second week of…

Which witch hazel is which

I find myself dumbfounded on occasion, maybe even frequently. Last year I purchased a large witch hazel (seven feet tall and nearly as wide) that was labelled by the grower as Hamamelis virginiana, the native witch hazel of the mid Atlantic. My confusion began when the leaves dropped in early November. The leaves are not…

365 days of blooms

For the first time in my years of gardening there will be flowers in the garden every day of the year. Yes, outside in the garden, in northwestern Virginia! In most years I’ve had blooms in eleven months (though usually not every day in February), and in a few years there have been a few…