Flowers in January

It’s always a pleasure to see the first flowers of the year and it’s noticeable that far more are in flower than there used to be a few years ago. Winters are warmer and frosts generally last only a day or so ( at least in the South East of England where I live). Yesterday I made a “guess” list of possible flowering plants but I must say I was very surprised at how many there actually were, once I had gone outside and done a brief survey. Now there’s nothing worse than a boring list of plants but I thought I’d do it anyway for this month only.

I easily guessed snowdrops, crocus, hellebores and primulas and there they were.

There were also the expected shrubs, the first three all fragrant to different degrees.

• Chimonanthus praecox (wintersweet)
• Lonicera fragrans (winter honeysuckle)
• two different Sarcococcas with their tiny but extremely fragrant flowers
• Grevillia “Canberra Gem”with its rich red flowers

The surprises were:

• Ipheion uniflorum “Charlotte Bishop” with large, dusky pink flowers. The only one of my Ipheions flowering.
• scilla mischtschenkoana”Tubergeniana”. What a name!
• Iris unguicularis “Walter Butt”, hiding under a shrub, a real gem with pale purple flowers and beautiful markings.
• Daphne bholua “Jacqueline Postill” an upright, evergreen shrub with pink fragrant flowers, newly planted last year (see picture below)