The Soggy January Garden Offers Up Bouquets from Casual to Elegant

Not much more than witch hazel is in bloom out there on these dark and soggy days, but it's surprising how much mileage you can get out of its curious little fragrant flowers and stiff branches. Really, witch hazel is better in a vase than in the ground, for out in the landscape the blossoms can almost disappear, and all you see is the gangly vase-shape of the shrub itself. Indoors, close up, the flowers are intriguing, with their spidery filaments and sweetly clean, astringent scent.

 While a modern metallic vase might seem an odd choice to hold such rustic looking branches, I like how  its slim, shiny sweep glams up the matte of the bark and dark flowers.  The metal's silver sheen shows off the copper color of the Hamamelis x intermedia 'Jelena' flowers. While these darker witch hazels aren't as cheery in the garden as the more common yellow-bloomers, up close their flower color is so unusual. The bottle is by Kirkland artist Deloss Webber.

In the kitchen, I've mixed sprigs of the same witch hazel (I only have room for a single one in my garden) with heart-shaped cyclamen leaves, pine, camellia leaves, and hellebore buds in a little white vase designed to hold a bunch of single stems. A Christmas gift from my friend Richard Hartlage, I can't wait to display tiny spring treasures like anemones, crocus and dwarf narcissus in this favorite new vase...but for now, it's pretty much witch hazel...

Comments

[Chris]

Simplicity always wins! So pretty!

[Natural Choice Directory]

These really are lovely. It's a shame more people can't see the natural beauty of winter plants--despite snow, rain and fog! We offer lots of local resources for those who want to develop their green thumb, check them out here: http://naturalchoice.net/sec1/farmgard.htm

[mano keramika]

Amazing Website, was really enjoying, thank you!