These flowers can withstand a little frost: ‘The winter jasmine is also in full bloom now’ | Living

It is not difficult to find a list of shrubs on the internet that bloom in winter: Mahogany Bush, Pepper Tree, Winter Jasmine, Melon Tree, Snowball (this is not the classic white Snowball, but the pink-flowering Viburnum x bodnantense ), Rhododendron ‘Praecox’, Japanese quince, Sarcococca and Winter honeysuckle. This list is not complete and besides, the pepper tree and the Japanese quince are missing for me. They bloom in March and I don’t call March winter but spring.

But what I actually want to know is whether the flowers of those shrubs can withstand frost and there is no information about that on the same internet. The subject seems taboo. The shrubs in the aforementioned row will survive the winter, I have no doubt about that. But what happens to the flowers when it freezes? Because we may be having milder winters, but at the time I am writing this the forecast is that it will freeze eight degrees tonight.

Let’s go through the list. The mahogany bushes (Mahonia ‘Winter Sun’) are in full bloom. Tomorrow those flowers will be brown and fall off; then it is winter sun turned into winter drizzle. This is different with the winter jasmine. It is also in full bloom now. But winter jasmine blooms for a long time, from December to March. When it freezes, the flowers fall off, but new flower buds open again as soon as it thaws. The shrub blooms off and on, driven by frost and thaw. The same applies to the melon tree, an inconspicuous shrub that you mainly plant for the heavenly scent of its flowers: flowering stops when it freezes and continues quietly when it thaws.

Viburnum x bodnantense is also now in bloom. It is not an elegant shrub, shaped like a broom, but the pink flowers smell sweet. Nice to put in a vase. If frost is coming I would do that immediately, because even when there is a light frost, the flower umbels turn brown. Then you sit in the garden with a ‘co-driver’ for the rest of the year.

If I divide those winter-flowering shrubs into drivers and co-drivers, Rhododendron ‘Praecox’ is certainly a driver. It grows half a meter high in ten years and blooms with lilac flowers at the end of February. The shrub likes shade and resembles what you would previously have called an azalea. Nowadays every azalea is called Rhododendron.

The Sarcococca, which as far as I know does not have a Dutch name, is also a dwarf. It evergreen leaves are pointed and shiny dark green; the white flowers are inconspicuous, but spread an intoxicating scent. You smell the bush before you see it. Frost has little control over it.

Honeysuckle is a climbing plant. That’s true, but there are also bushy honeysuckle, which often bloom in the winter months. Such a winter honeysuckle is Lonicera fragrantissima. The plant blooms for a long time, with frost-resistant, fragrant, creamy white flowers.