Picking January Flowers--Camellia and Prunus mume
Everyone has flowers in the spring and summer–but winter flowers are special. They break up the grey landscape, bring the outdoors in, and to me they feel like progress–the passing of the season, the coming of more.
They also remind me of my progress as a gardener. On this last Monday in January, there are 6 kinds of plants blooming in my garden. It didn’t start out that way. I bought the color where I saw it–flats from the Harris Teeter, the Lowes. I made hundreds of impulse purchases–better make that thousands–before I started building a garden that would bloom for me year around.
So what’s blooming today?
Camellias and Prunus Mume from my favorite local nursery, Camellia Forest. The Parks family (yes, the same Dr. Parks who taught blog-partner Melissa botany at UNC) are geniuses. Nationally know camellia breeders, they have introduced countless new camellia hybrids to the world. Their plants are tough, well-grown and handle transplant really well. In the horrible drought a couple summers ago, none of my Camellia Forest plants died. The nursery also offers a number of Asian plants (Prunus mume for one) which are hard to find. Check them out at www.camforest.com if you’re ready to move beyond the limited selection at the big box store.
Wintersweet– May be my favorite winter plant. One–because I grew mine from seed, my first big success. And two because it lays down these wonderful patches of fragrance on sunny days like today. I love my Wintersweet so much, last year I made a video about it and put it on YouTube. (link TBA)
Aromatherapy for outdoor chores--Wintersweet on 1/25/2010
Rijnveld’s Early Sensation Daffodils have bloomed as early as January 1st for me. Because of our cold weather over the holidays, this year’s first blooms arrived last week. Who doesn’t love yellow daffodils?
Bearsfoot Helleborus–also a long ago purchase from Camellia Forest. I love green flowers and this one blooms for two months or more.
Pansies and Violas–Not a lot of landscape impact this month–they’re too small. Still–it’s nice to cut blooms for the house and they’ll look like a million bucks in a month or two. But so will a lot of other flowers. In January–the dead of winter, every little bit of color stands out.
So what’s you’re favorite source of winter color? And another important question for Carolina gardeners–what do you see when you look out of your kitchen window this month?
3 comments
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January 26, 2010 at 12:26 am
Melissa Blaisdell
These are wonderful. I don’t have anything blooming right now…something to put on the garden planning list. I think it is important to have something to aspire towards, but also not feel like you have to do it all at once. So I will write this in my garden journal adding to the plan. When time and money permit–I will have to try these lil winter garden miracles.
January 30, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Diantha Pinner
I seem to be in a bare patch between Yuletide and Ack-Scent camelias (I hope this storm doesn’t kill the buds!). I have a couple other varieties that will bloom later. I also have prunus mume, not in bloom yet but showing signs of life. I was away and then buried in quarterly reports all week and hadn’t noticed the red buds forming. Yay!!! I can’t wait! These are all new plants in my yard, so I’m just discovering what to expect from them. Thanks for the other suggestions. I have room to expand, and we all need flowers in winter.
February 10, 2011 at 8:40 pm
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