JC Raulston Arboretum winter flowers.

Visited the JC Raulston Arboretum on January 16th, it was in the 20s if I recall it was cold. We had a few days before a 9 degree night, which did little damage. Here are some of the flowers I found.

The only blooming camellia was this Camellia X vernalis 'Ginryu'. Small blooms around 1 1/2 inch, might have helped it from freezing having small blooms. The arboretum only has a few camellia bushes.

 Snow drops I found only a small patch of them. These are Galanthus plicatus. Wish I could grow these. We had babies under ours last year, not sure if they survived, the chickens might have gotten them.

Lots of Helleborus foetidus  'Pontarlier' in bloom.

Winter Flowering Iris, Iris unguicularis  Every time I see this in bloom in the winter is seems so out of place.

 Fragrant Wintersweet, Chimonanthus praecox This was a new plant for me, the aroma caught me as I was walking by two huge bushes of these in bloom. The blooms are small maybe an half inch. I want some for the garden and I think it might tolerate shade too.

Ozark Witchhazel, Hamamelis vernalis This witchhazel really got my attention!

Ozark Witchhazel, Hamamelis vernalis 'Quasimodo' This one was the smallest in the garden I almost missed seeing it.

Red Common Witchhazel, Hamamelis xintermedia 'Diane' 
This one had big blooms but fewer of them. I liked it a lot.

 Common Witchhazel, Hamamelis xintermedia 'Aurora' This witchhazel was near the main entrance and it was giving quite the show!

In our garden the only witchhazel has lots of buds, but they have not opened yet.

Winter Spicebush, Lindera chienii  This was a new flowering shrub for me, very interesting and about 12 foot around, very big.

Prunus mume ' Rose bud' This flowering apricot was  just opening up. The gardens had three different Prunus mumes in bloom, the bright sun made for horrible photos.

New hellebores & plants for the garden!

Hey everyone we are now 4 years into this blog! Hope you have enjoyed it. I still have visitors that were commenting in my very early posts, I'm glad to still have you visiting!!

Anyway as you know we visited the Pine Knot Frams Hellebore Festival last Saturday. We picked up some new plants for the garden! In case you want to get some of these Pine Knot Farms Hellebore Festival is still going on the next two Fridays and Saturdays, they have lots of cool plants!

Double hellebores was our goal, but as always I get a little side tracked.

We used to have only one yellow hellebore in our garden. This is our new yellow one, above and below. Just love those pink outer edges.

This one is my favorite one of the whole group. Its a bit on the small side, but stunning. They had a couple of hellebores close to this and larger, but the outer pink veins called me to buy this one.

Helleborous Atrorubens X hybridus

Could not pass this one up, they had several of these. This is a species hellebore crossed with hybridus.

Helleborus Liguricus a recently classified new species of Hellebore!

 Don't see many double yellow hellebores! This one is going in our garden!

 Just liked this one, nice blend of colors in this double.

My first pick when we got there. This is very dark for a double hellebore. We already have a smaller lighter one in the garden.

Every year at the Hellebore Festival they have some Parks drought resistant primrose hybrids grown in Chapel Hill.

Meg picked this Witchhazel up called "Aurora" it is supposed to be the largest blooming witch hazel and one of the most fragrant. It was heavenly riding home in the car for an hour enjoying its aroma! The witch hazels were brought in from Rare Find Nursery in NJ.

Here is a Small Anise Tree, illicium_parviflorum it is called 'Florida Sunshine'. This is fragrant and will make a nice addition to our garden.

We also picked up a Harry Lauder's walking stick, Corylus avellana'Contorta'for the garden, very cool plant. And we got three new cyclamens, two spring bloomers and a fall bloomer too.