I dearly love all winter flowers but with a few notable exceptions they are subtle rather than showy.
It’s true that if I turn my head and look out of the window I can see the scarlet flowers of a camellia staring in at me but most of the shrubs that light up the garden with flowers at this time of year favour parchment white or palest yellow. In the case of viburnums and daphnes the clusters of tiny flowers are tipped with the faintest blush pink. Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ has been flowering for months passing the baton on to Daphne bholua ‘Gurka’.
The spidery flowers of witch hazels favour yellow with Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Pallida’ sporting its pale yellow flowers on bare branches. H. ‘Jalena’ deviates with rust-red flowers that remind me of the waving tendrils of sea anemones in a rock pool. The winter flowering honeysuckle, Lonicera x purpusii is as pale as parchment whilst winter sweet, Chimonanthus praecox bears small, waxy straw coloured flowers with purple centres. What they all possess of course is scent for these flowers must compete…
