Bloom Day – January 2023

Published on January 15 2023

Happy new year! The start into the new year has been wet and very mild here in Zurich, Switzerland (hardiness zone 7b). After a cold start into December with snow and a minimum of almost -8C/18F, the temperatures have stayed well above freezing since. It has felt more like fall than winter the last couple of weeks, but the mild conditions won't last much longer. Colder weather is on the forecast for this week. The garden is wet and soggy, but there are still some blooms to see. Let's take a look.
Garden Bloggers‘ Bloom Day is a monthly blogging series, with people from all over the world featuring the flowers in their gardens. Go over and check out the other participants‘ blooming spectacles at Carol's May Dreams Gardens.

Some Grevilleas are blooming. First up is Grevillea 'Poorinda Constance'. This plant has quickly become a favorite; it has been blooming constantly, pretty much since I planted it in spring.

The cultivar Grevillea victoriae 'Murray Valley Queen' (on the left) is much more floriferous than the straight species Grevillea victoriae (on the right), keeping its flowers through the summer heat. But it seems to me to be slightly less cold hardy.

I absolutely love Hamamelis 'Rochester' for its strong, gorgeous fragrance and early flowering period (it started flowering in December). Apparently, it is not a popular cultivar, because it tends to keep the old leaves into winter.

My other, scentless Hamamelis (cultivar unknown) has just started to bloom.

Helleborus foetidus has opened the first few flowers.

The first spring bulbs are popping up: Crocus chrysanthus 'Romance' is peeking through a groundcover of Acaena microphylla.

Soggy blooms on the evergreen Ribes laurifolium. It's early, normally it starts to bloom in February.

Sarcococca orientalis has been blooming since mid-December, far earlier than any other Sarcococca. The blooms are also quite showy for this genus, and of course, very fragrant like most of them. I‘m impressed!

Sarcocca confusa has also started flowering. On warm winter days the heavenly scent of this plant can be detected from far away.

Viburnum tinus (left) is blooming wonderfully, while my young Viburnum x bodnantense 'Dawn' (right) has only a few flowers left.

Those are some of the last flowers on Mahonia x media 'Winter Sun'. This shows how warm the last couple of months have been; with cooler weather this plant could flower into spring.