January Plants stimulate my senses ! Offering up glorious fragrances from , often , the tiniest of flowers , enticing me to greet them up-close-and-personal !
For example , just a few stems of Witch-hazel , Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ and Lonicera fragrantissima* , whether singularly for their individual fragrances of jasmine , rose and lemon , or mixed together for a more heady aroma , would certainly bring-the-outside-in’ to fill your room with seasonal scent , together with their wonderful , branching forms and striking flowers.
* Lonicera x purpusii ‘Winter Beauty’ is almost identical to L. fragrantissima .
If you wanted to create an especially ‘twiggy’ arrangement , then you could add some fiery stems of Dogwood ; be they flames of Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ , ruby-reds of C. alba ‘Sibirica’ or citrus-bursts of C. sericea ‘Flaviramea’ , all bringing-in welcome , winter colour to your Home.
I love the evergreen Shrubs and Buds offered in Winter too ; Viburnum tinus and her cultivars are just perfect , as are the Skimmias with their bibbles-and-bobbles , and also , of course, the wonderful stems and delicate but super-sweet flowers of Sarcococca. All lasting absolutely ages in the Vase !
** Skimmia japonica ‘Finchy’ (PBR) has slightly smaller flower-heads than ‘Kew Green’
We also begin to see the most glorious of winter Flowers ; the heavenly Hellebores ; our winter Roses . These offer some of the most adorable Flowers , just when we maybe need them the most ! One of my absolute favourite Plants , so wonderful in the Garden , and , in my experience , very amenable in the Vase too , by cutting vertically up the stem , or having just their beautiful Flowers floating in a Dish , like Water-Lilies on a Pond !
I will showcase these Winter Beauties more in my February Focus , in the meantime, enjoy these exquisite examples from John Massey’s Open Garden at Ashwood Nurseries !