Greet the New Year with Hellebores, Daphne, and Camellias at the Arboretum's Winter Garden

Need proof that the planet has spun its face toward spring? It's a tradition for Seattle gardeners to visit the Witt Winter Garden at the dawn of a new year for reassurance that nature is budding and blooming out there.

I love the Washington Park Arboretum's Winter Garden....it's on high, non-soggy ground and open to any possible rays of sunshine. The paths lead tantalizingly off in different directions. If there's any warmth at all, you'll smell sweet sarcococca and the fresh, astringent scent of witch hazel. There are treasures underfoot, like the shiny red Arisaema berries, left, and overhead where hummingbirds hover and sip nectar from Mahonia 'Arthur Menzies' in full, fragrant bloom.

The garden is rich in gardening lessons, from how large and wide witch hazels grow, to how effective yellow twig dogwood looks rising out of a bed of black mondo grass. Mostly, it's just pure pleasure to get outdoors this time of year, dream of spring, breathe in fresh air, and enjoy a garden at it's peak in the depths of winter.

Here's a brief glance at a few of the treasures in bloom and leaf....I could have taken so many more photos if Bridget wasn't impatient to run up the woodland paths, and I wasn't trying out my new app "MapMyWalk".....Enjoy the photos, go take some of your own (maybe you can capture the hummingbirds that eluded my camera with their vibrations)....and Happy New Year....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food for overwintering Anna's hummingbirds....

A supremely fragrant old Chinese witch hazel (Hamamelis mollis).

It's worth the trip just to smell this Daphne bholua - it looks and smells like spring.

Hellebore 'Cinnamon Snow' blooming happily on a chilly afternoon....

Camellia sasanquas - which have grown into glossy-leafed trees in the Arboretum

Look at all that mid-winter color.....the orange is a patch of heather....

Yellow twig dogwood shown off by a thick bed of black mondo grass....

Comments

[Kim]

That's exactly what we did this perfect sunny morning! An absolutely beautiful walk - I find myself stopping often, to study what and how plants have been paired with the native sword ferns, mahonia, etc - ideas to try in the spring.

Hope you also got to see the growing Pacific Connections garden that shows off the diversity of evergreen hebes.

[ricki]

Wonderful inspiration for a much neglected season in the garden.

[Loriann@techdealsmag]

The Black Mondo grass is gorgeous. I've never seen that up close. The dogwood does look good next to it.

I like the idea of this garden. It gives nature lovers beauty to enjoy in the midst of winter. So few gardens are thriving at this time in temperate countries.

I think Puget Sound is really blessed with a wide variety of plant and animal life. I don't know if the community makes a greater effort to highlight what they have or they really go out of their way to preserve the diversity of flora and fauna in the region.

[broad beans]

Winter-blooming plants bring vibrancy to the landscape and are oftentimes frost tolerant.I liked every picture shared in this post!Mid-winter color of flower is looking gorgeous with that orange color.