Bloom Day – March 2023

Published on March 15 2023

Winter since February has been relatively mild here in Zurich, Switzerland (hardiness zone 7b), it has been generally a mild winter. The minimum temperature of this winter had already been reached in December during a harsh cold spell with around -8C/18F. Two times we had some periods of hard frosts in January and February. It got cold again at the end of February into March and last week we had a tiny bit of snow. Today has been warm and sunny, though, and there are a decent amount of flowers out and about in my garden. So, let's take a look for this month's Bloom Day.
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.

Euphorbia rigida is the first of the Euphorbias to bloom. The very similar looking Euphorbia myrsinites is barely starting. I grew these E. rigida from seed last year, they're supposedly a bit less hardy than E. myrsinites, but they did fine this winter.

These Grevilleas have been blooming all winter long: Grevillea 'Poorinda Constance' (left) and Grevillea victoriae 'Murray Valley Queen' (right).

My yellow Hamamelis (no i.d.) is almost done, a few blooms are hanging in there.

My garden is full of wild hellebores, most of them have a greenish muddy color when in bloom and the foliage never looks good. I have reduced their number over the years, but they're quite weedy and still pop up everywhere. Some do look good like the one on the left. The only hellebores I've ever added to the garden are some Helleborus foetidus (right), their foliage looks much nicer than the weedy ones.

Arbutus unedo 'Atlantic.

Prunus mume or Japanese apricots are lovely, very early flowering trees with amazing fragrance. I've just recently added a new one: Prunus mume 'Beni-chidori', a widely available, single flowered cultivar that is very, very pink. I actually like the color more than I expected. And the scent is gorgeous. Prunus mume 'Peggy Clarke' is just starting to open on this bloom day. This one is a softer pink and double-flowered.

Distylium myricoides, an odd witch-hazel relative. It's evergreen and slow-growing for me.

The Akebia trifoliata are starting to flower. The really early blooms of this vine are always getting killed by frost, but it does always produce more.

Lime-green flowers on Ribes laurifolium. An unusual, evergreen, dioecious Ribes species. It actually started blooming really early in January, and I was worried the flowers would freeze, but it wasn’t bothered by a couple of hard frosts.

The last of the Sarcococcas still in bloom: Sarcococca hookeriana var. digyna.

Reliably blooming through the cold season: Viburnum tinus.

This wild Viola growing in the cracks of my garden path looked absolutely lovely today.