Vernal Witch Hazel taken today against the snow. The bitty flowers are impervious to cold. 'Pallida' in bloom today with its spicey sweet flowers. This selection does not have the stiff, upright habid of 'AP' instead it is more graceful and picturesque, also flowering is earlier since 'AP' has not opened up yet.

Diane is bloominghere on the Cape, or maybe it's Jelena - I can't tell them apart except on the web. One is in full bloom, in full sun, the other is in part shade and is not showing any color, and Arnold's Promise is still sound alseep. Dawn Viburnum is blooming too, somewhat sparsely but filling in as the days go by. Winter jasmine is going strong, and all the hellebores are bursting. I think forsythia is ready for forcing, and I'm enjoying all of it while it lasts. The heck with spring, it will arrive eventually, and whatever blooms then, blooms then.

My Diane has about 5 years in my garden and was a decent sized shrub (maybe 3'x3') when I planted it. It tends to grow a bit wider than tall - Chris Lane in his book on witch hazels gives its ultimate size as 2.5m tall x 3m wide. However, I'm at the northern edge of the range for H. x intermedia cultivars, so I don't expect that it will ever reach that. I am grateful for the snow cover since it helps with protection on those cold winter nights. Mine has grown slowly and since we still have about 3 1/2 to 5 feet on the ground (depending on the drifting) it is still buried. (My shorter compost pile is also completely buried, and last week when I mistakenly stepped off the path I've packed out to the compost I instantly sank to my hip and had a hard time getting free . . . we are still in full winter mode for a few weeks.) From what I read, neither Diane nor Arnold Promise are especially early bloomers when compared to other witch hazels though they are compared to almost any other woody plant in this area. I think the appeal of AP is the scent and the bright, relatively large flowers, while the deep red-orange color is the appeal of Diane. I would love to have an AP or an Angelly or one of the other scented, yellow, large-flowered H. x intermedia, but Diane is the only one I've ever seen around here, and mail order ones are so small.

Hi Ginny - Isn't Arnold wonderful? Mine started blooming, just barely, before the intense cold set in here, but it's really in full swing now. My other Hamamelis, Diane and Jelena, are just about done, they're quite a bit earlier than Arnold and don't always signal the end of winter for that reason. I'm checking around to see which plants that were blooming before the big chill set in were decimated by the cold and which ones bounced back. Snowdrops, witch hazel, heaths and hellebores look fine, but winter jasmine (Jasminium nudiflorum) flowers are mush. Maybe it'll put out more flowers and give a second show, I'll keep checking.