Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Hamamelis - Part Three

The first one this morning is Girard's Purple which is a selected form of the species. It is definitely a better plant. Though it grows about the same, the flowers are much bigger. I love the color, but it is for up close and the scent as it doesn't show up from a distance as much as the lighter colors do.
Next is Girard's Superba. This is an old one also. Girard's Nursery introduced a number of them way back when. You could add their nursery to the list, I guess, as it is one of the best places for conifer, especially unusual things. This is a smaller bush, probably in too much shade, with flowers that are a mixture of colors, reds, pinks, yellow and oranges - all in one flower.
This next one is Harry. Funny name for a plant I think. More like a dogs name. Anyway, I need to get a better picture of this one, but I included it because it shows what the buds look like and the flowers as they are just starting to open. The petals are all curled up in the buds, rolled, I guess, and when the start to open, they unroll and then grow longer. Some never have very long petals, but some, probably in tomorrow's group, have petals that are extremely long and thin.

Last for this morning is Jelena. This is also one of the old stand-bys that has been around for years. I don't know why more people don't grow these wonderful plants. Nothing else is going to give you flowers and wonderful scent in February. I bought a winter blooming honeysuckle, bush not vine, but although it has swollen buds that look just ready to come out by January, it rarely blooms before mid-March when we are about to have several acres of daffodils in bloom. We also have a Daphne that is theoretically winter bloomin and is called February Daphne, but it will likely be a few more weeks before that is out either.



I did take a number of pictures in the greenhouse during one of our brief periods of sun yesterday and will try and get them out of the camera and into the computer today. Not much special and nothing that wouldn't grow on a windowsill, but a nice assortment of mostly succulents. I'll do the cactus later.
Jane


1 comment:

Sylvia (England) said...

Janie, I don't have a Hamamelis - head hung in shame. Because they are expensive I promised myself I wouldn't buy one until I had the perfect spot! One day but then I will have to decide on which one...

Best wishes Sylvia (England)
PS I have a guest post on www.tulipsinthewoods.com about hellebores that you might enjoy.