In the Garden with Pat Rubin

Bee garden writer Pat Rubin writes about everything that grows, from flowers and trees to vegetables and lawns. Pat volunteered for several years as a Placer County Master Gardener and has written about gardening for many national and regional publications. In addition to gardening, she spends time raising and showing miniature horses and miniature donkeys.

In the Garden will include news, events, advice and other gardening tidbits. Pat will also answer reader questions.

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February 12, 2008

Want flowers now?

February is one of those months that teases us with nice, spring weather. Suddenly the weather will turn warm and sunny, and we'll be lured into thinking spring really is just around the corner. Then the rains return, it's chilly again, and we're back in winter.

But there are ways to enjoy the winter garden without lifting a finger: plant shrubs that bloom when the calendar says it's winter. Here are five beautiful shrubs guaranteed to be in bloom now and every winter thereafter.

1. Sarcococca (pictured): Also called Christmas Box. Beautiful evergreen shrub for shady areas. Tiny highly scented white flowers on the bottoms of the stems, followed by red berries that deepen to black. Slow grower to three to five feet tall and as wide.

2. Witch Hazel: A slow growing deciduous small tree or multi-branched shrub. Makes clusters of ribbon-like yellow flowers in the middle of winter. Great for cutting and bringing branches indoors. It tends to hang onto its old leaves, however, until spring.

3. Daphne: Makes a neat mound growing eventually to about three to five feet wide and nearly as tall. Heavenly scented flowers. Daphne aureomarginata has gold-edged leaves.

4. Camellia japonica: A popular evergreen shrub, it looks good year round. Gorgeous flowers in many colors and shapes. Needs morning shade, or filtered shade all day.

5. Wintersweet: Chimonanthus praecox, it’s a deciduous tall shrub/small tree. The flowers, which are sweetly scented, look like tiny baubles hanging on the bare brown branches. Can take a lot of sun.

And one of the best things about winter blooming plants is all you have to do, other than cutting a few branches to bring indoors, is to enjoy them.

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