First Bloom of the New Year

We have always said that there is something blooming in the gardens every month of the year, and this year is no exception. We had dianthus and pansies blooming in December and now I have seen the first Hamamelis (witchhazel) bloom over at Lake Amanda. It will take a few weeks of temperatures that are a bit warmer than the below freezing ones we've had for the past few weeks, but it is so nice to see color on something out there. As a matter of truthful disclosure, the photo is one I took last spring since the blooms are just now starting to open, but the color is visible from a distance and that is always a good thing in January when the garden is composed of mostly muted shades. Even the wonderfully colored conifer, despite colors of yellow, gold, white and blue, presents an overall sort of grey to the garden from a distance.
Even more that the bright colors of the witchhazel is the wonderful scent which can fill the whole garden on a sunny afternoon. It will be a few weeks before we can enjoy that, but anything to look forward to gardenwise this time of year can only be a good thing. We have been looking through catalogs for a few things to add to the gardens and will probably finalize those orders today in between more work on the website. For those who have been waiting for the new photos there, the hosta and daylily sections are finished as are those sections of the catalog. I'm working on perennials now. I added almost 500 new daylily photos. I had no idea I had taken that many. I know now that my focus for this year will be the hostas since I'm really unhappy with a lot of the photos there - old and degrading. Wish I knew how to keep the digital photos from degrading over time. Anyone know how to do that - please post to let me know.
Jane