As we enter the first days of winter, just remember that the antidote to those dark, cool days is a garden filled with plants we can pick and bring inside to enjoy some early blooms of spring.
Many outdoor flowering shrubs have little buds ready to burst. We just have to know where to look.
Yellow winter jasmine is the first to colour up in December. Even now, the buds are showing signs of yellow.
By clipping off a few long stems and placing them in warm water, they'll open up in four to five days and fill our homes with their mild perfume. These vines look sensational in a tall vase.
If you love fresh spring fragrance, you'll never find a match for gorgeous Chinese witch hazel.
The yellow 'Mollis' variety is already unveiling its spidery blossoms outdoors. Once cut and brought inside, the perfume is almost overwhelming.
Many 'Hammemalis' varieties sound intriguing, but I have found only the yellow or orange-yellow varieties really stand out and provide that magnificent fragrance.
When you prune them back, be selective with your branches and leave a well-balanced shape because they bloom far more heavily on old wood.
If you examine the buds of Viburnum 'Pink Dawn', without a doubt the longest winter-flowering shrub in the Pacific Northwest, you'll now see lots of clusters beginning to show pink.
The buds open in bunches of tiny pink flowers that have a delicate, enticing perfume. Once picked and brought inside, they quickly open and provide both colour and perfume for weeks.
The flowering cherry 'Autumnalis' is ready to burst any time now. This stunning Japanese tree is just loaded with hundreds of semi-double, soft pink blossoms which remind one of spring. Their somewhat pendulous branches lend themselves nicely to fancy vases and look super with fresh yellow daffodils.
Helleborus niger, better known as the Christmas rose, is also unfurling its beautiful pure white blooms and looks lovely placed in a small vase with some colourful stems and winter greens.
A well-planned garden can provide an almost limitless supply of colour, free for the picking at this time of year.
If you are unfamiliar with these shrubs, visit VanDusen Gardens or UBC Botanical Gardens in Vancouver this season, and see what's flowering.
Jot down the names and find a spot for them in your garden this spring!
