Boxing Day Count 2023: Winter Fragrance

I wasn’t expecting a lot from today’s count, but mild temperature in the week leading up to Christmas Day must have given things an unseasonal boost and I have had some surprises in the last few days. Having noted it was still only in bud, I wasn’t going to include sarcococca in the total until I came out of the back door again a little later and was instantly hit with an almost overwhelming fragrance: tucked under foliage and sprawling ivy was a clutch of fully open blooms, doing what they do best and perfuming the garden from several metres away.

Also close to the house are some early flowering snowdrops, both out of focus, on-time ‘Santa Claus’ (left) and almost-over ‘Barnes’:

Popping into the Coop, there are three dwarf pelargonium still blooming; in the past, I have cut back my scented leaved varieties by this time, but these ones, new for this year, were still happily blooming so I have let them be. From left to right are ‘Morval’, David John’ and ‘Bold Pixie’:

I showed Hellebore Spring Promise ‘Anja Oudolf’ recently, but now it is joined by H niger ‘Christmas Carol’, not seen for a few years and a huge surprise:

There are various other oddments, not making a great impact but welcome nonetheless (clockwise from top left): seed-sown Viola ‘Cool Wave Frost’, blurry Viburnum tinus, vivid pink polyanthus and almost perpetual flowering Arabis ‘All Gold’. I omitted to photograph Viburnum bodnantense ‘Dawn’, and last year I thought to include catkins on Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’, so that’s another two for the total.

However, the main show of colour, comes from my collection of witch hazels, around half of which have suddenly begun blooming in the last week or so. Clockwise from top left are ‘Magic Fire’, favourite ‘Harry’,