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sam_md

Christmas Blooms

sam_md
12 years ago

{{gwi:285168}}

{{gwi:285169}}

#1 is Chimonanthus praecox 'Luteus'

#2 is Hamamelis mollis 'Superba'

Mild temps have brought out these winter bloomers. Both have spicy perfume and flowes that tolerate frost. Do you have any shrubs blooming?

Comments (8)

  • bogturtle
    12 years ago

    Have Mahonia 'Winter Sun' and another, unidentified, as well as Jasminium nudiflorum and Lonicera standishii. Only a slight gaping on a few Hamamelis buds, now, and none of my Chimonanthus are growing at an appreciable rate.
    For Winter color, I am depending upon colored-bark Dogwoods and Japanese maples, as well as Winterberry.
    My blog is 'Bogturtle's Garden'. I repeat photos and comments over and over, as months pass.

  • sam_md
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    {{gwi:285170}}
    Probably this would be better as Lenten Blooms. I took this pic today from the local municipal ballpark. Scores of these shrubs are planted to form a monstrous hedge. Flowers have a delicious lemony smell. Can you name it?

  • Embothrium
    12 years ago

    This is the Standish honeysuckle mentioned above or one of its relations. Since one or more of these have become weeds back there, a big planting in a park may not be a good thing.

  • sam_md
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    I've never seen Standish honeysuckle, I don't think that's what I have.
    The foliage here is glabrous or essentially so. I think that this is another Lonicera.

  • jeff_al
    12 years ago

    i've never smelled the standish honeysuckle but strong lemon fragrance comes from l. fragrantissima. i am watching mine for signs of seeding about. it is on tennessee's list of invasives.

  • sam_md
    Original Author
    8 years ago



    More Lonicera, same as earlier post. They have a strong, lemony fragrance. I can say have never seen one of these come up in waste places or fencerows.

  • bogturtle
    8 years ago

    Lonicera fragrantissima is the most fragrant for me. I believe L. Standishii is another pleasant scented species. And the hybrid of the two is called L. purpusii. But I am no botanist.

    L. fragrantissima is given the beautiful and romantic name of 'Breath Of Spring'.

  • davidrt28 (zone 7)
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    L. X purpusii has a variant the fruit loopy odor of Edgeworthia or Daphne odora. Plant odors are funny, or maybe how people characterize them. For example most magnolias I've smelled seem very similar to me, but some people say, for example, that M. X wieseneri is completely different from M. grandiflora. But to me, they are both slight variations on the "lemon hand soap" smell. The deciduous hybrid might be a little richer, but they have the same "base note". The same was true of my Magnolia dianica, on the recently-rare occasion of it blooming. (it was severely damaged in the the 2 cold winters, less so this year so it might throw a few blossoms this spring)

    I have smelled a tropical magnolia in the Longwood conservatory that was completely different, not lemony, and like a ghastly cloying perfume. A bit like ylang-ylang, which they also have on display there.