Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: January
n the 15th of each month, it’s a tradition for garden bloggers all across the Web to share a photo or two of what’s blooming in their yards or around their neighborhoods.
With the arctic blast that’s encompassed so much of the country, however, I’m betting that most of us will be hard-pressed to come up with much of anything floral. There are the houseplants of winter, of course – amaryllis, paperwhites, cyclamen, and perhaps some forced hyacinths. And outdoors, there’s no shortage of red berries, thanks to shrubs like holly and nandina.
But even here in the South, where it would be typical to see both pansies and camellias blooming up a storm in January, the extreme cold has put a damper on things. Yesterday I took a three-mile walk around my neighborhood and saw just about nothing in bloom.
The exception is that rather coarse and awkward shrub known as mahonia.
photo: H. Brucker
In January, without fail, the tops of its gangly canes are adorned with sprays of yellow flowers that aren’t really showy, but are nevertheless a welcome sight when the world lacks color. As an added bonus, the blooms are scented – to my mind, they’re a dead ringer for lily-of-the-valley in terms of fragrance. (Insects also seem to like the flowers – on a sunny day in winter, the shrub is usually buzzing with bees.) By late spring, the blooms have turned into dark purple, grape-like berries that are quickly gobbled up by the mockingbirds.
I inherited my mahonia when I bought my house, and though there are reportedly 70 different species of this evergreen shrub, mine is most likely Mahonia bealei, the leatherleaf mahonia. It grows well in either filtered or dense shade, and may be a little too clumsy for a formal garden, but in a woodland setting the coarse texture and bluish-green color of its prickly leaves are a nice contrast to other plantings. It’s hardy in zones 6 to 9.
To see what other garden bloggers have blooming today, visit May Dreams Gardens!
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Yep the cold spell did a number on my North Florida Gardens too.
You were right about what we might be showing. I’ve never seen so many Amaryllis pictures on the same day! I have hyacinths sprouted, but no blooms yet. The camellias are at that point between the brown blooms that froze and the tight buds that know better than to open too soon. I do have violas, they’re sturdier than pansies. The ones that were under a blanket of pine straw have better foliage, the ones without cover over the crowns have better blooms.
Mahonia is a good choice. I’ve long thought about growing one, or more ever since I saw one in the snow in front of the Seattle airport.
My sister lives in NC and is surrounded by the terrible mahonia! I did not know it sent up such pretty flower sprays though. Makes me reconsider…
What a wonderful idea!! There are a few helleborus just opening in my garden! Today I saw the Prunus mume has huge swollen buds……another warm day or two and it should be lovely.
You more southern gardeners are lucky to be able to grow mahonia … it does not like my zone 5 weather. Here we have only indoor bloomers.
Wendy, it is easy to misjudge mahonia if you don’t know all of its merits!
The shrub itself is a little awkward looking, but if it’s grown well it can be a nice addition to an informal garden or woodland. The flowers and the fruits are quite interesting, and the shrub itself can be shaped by pruning if necessary. Never trim or shear mahonia from the top — instead, identify the individual stems that are too tall, too gangly, or growing out an angle, and then lop them off near the ground.
Mahonia does self-sow as the birds eat its fruits and deposit the seeds on the ground. It could be your sister is surrounded by mahonia “volunteers” where she doesn’t want them, and this is what causes you to refer to mahonia as “terrible.” It is easy to remove these shrublets when they are tiny, the same way we have to do with pine and holly in the South. Also, you and your sister may better appreciate one of the new hybridized cultivars of mahonia, like ‘Winter Sun’ — it reportedly blooms earlier (late fall) and has larger flowers in a brighter yellow.
Great points, I will let her know. I’ve seen some beautiful photos of mahonia recently and do see potential. THe ones in my sister’s yard are really quite beastly. B-I-L has pruning on his list – I’ll make sure he pays attention to volunteers!