Bog Turtle's Garden- Jan. 2024

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 Still going strong at this strange time of year. Mahonia 'Charity'.

Once again the Hamamelis or Witch Hazels are blooming. This variety is called 'Pallida'. I repeat myself, but some day the developers will put forward one with these little spider-like blooms and no leaves left. I photographed one twig that is leafless. Leaf retention is enough that I would not recommend many sorts. 

A real sense of humor is needed, as one sort in the trio at one end of the lawn is 'Robert'. It blooms with rather intense red-orange flowers and never retains leaves. A month ago a fully grown pine fell from the woods directly on 'Robert', smashing it. And it will take me a while to get the pine off the little tree. Then the smashed remains will never have the normal looking branching. Oh, well. Move on.

The Wintersweet is living up to its name and almost completely in bloom. 


A few blooms on the rangy Winter blooming Honeysuckle. Three types are here. Lonicera fragrantissima, famous for the sweet odor in this harshest of seasons. Always quote the translation of its Chinese name, Breath of Spring.  I do know a near one is not quite in bloom yet and am confident that is a L. fragrantissima.  So that species is probably not the one in the photo above.  It could be L. purpusii, which may show purplish tone to the foliage in spring, or L. standishii. L. purpusii or L. standishii is described as a hybrid. On the warmest days, Honeybees from somewhere will visit. 


Far from a good photo, with no Sun, and quite a few of clusters already past, but Mahonia 'Winter Sun' is still extraordinary. Many plants, shown here, are not performing at maximum, because of climate or position, so googling the sort will often show how magnificent they can be. 


Several colored bark Dogwoods are on the property. Their brilliant Winter bark the only reason I would grow them. Rangy plants with blooms consisting only of the little yellow true flowers one sees in the middle of the big four bracts on the common flowering Dogwood.
Not even Fall color is great with the sorts I grow. 
And, as I have repeated, this beautiful sort is super vigorous and spreading by underground stolons. So I limit it by pruning sprouts out. A dogwood named for the sanguine or blood colored Winter bark, this is the clone called Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire'.


Here is a few of the flowers on the splendid WitchHazel named Hamamelis 'Robert', and I may add a photo of it in some other year, before that old pine in the woods fell on it last Month and smashed it.


Behind, and leaning over, the little pond are two clones of Witch-hazel or Hamamelis. The one called 'Copper Beauty' or 'Jelena' and the clear yellow 'Wisely Supreme'. I am guessing that the DeBelder family, in Europe, re-named Copper Beauty, in honor of a daughter, and several sorts exist, now, named after family members. 


Back in the shade, in the border between the lawn and the trellis and fence around the deck of the pool, the Snowdrops are open. The most common Galanthus nivalis, probably.


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