It’s official: Spring is coming soon!

One of the most glorious harbingers of spring, Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’ is in full glorious bloom in the Mary Livingston Ripley Garden.  The blooming of the Witch hazels is a sure sign that the end of this dreadful winter is near.

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’

You cannot miss these beauties—they are often referred to as trees, but in actuality they are mature shrubs.  The specimens in the Ripley Garden are probably over forty years old and are about twelve feet tall and fifteen feet wide and covered in small golden spider-like flowers.  What I find so magical is that the flowers will curl the petals up on a cold day and unfurl once again when the sun hits them.  Although they look dainty, they are built for cold temperatures.  I have often seen them blooming while covered in snow.

Witch hazel in bloom in the Ripley Garden.

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’ (with yellow flowers) and Acer ‘Sangu Kaku’ (with red stems)

Oh, and did I mention the fragrance?  Exquisite, dreamy sweetness.   The entire south end of the garden is perfumed.

Also in bloom, but a little more subtle:

Cheery Adonis amurensis

-A couple of newly-planted Adonis amurensis have recently bloomed. Golden two-inch flowers peak out just above the soil on naked stems. After the flowers start fading the lacy foliage will emerge for a few months then go dormant in the summer.

-Dainty little yellow Eranthus hyemalis—this ground-hugging Winter aconite looks like little yellow bubbles above a ruff of foliage.  The “bubbles” are actually the five-petaled flowers curled up before they fully open.

-The first signs of Daffodil ‘Rinjvelt’s Early Sensation’ –not a prize daffodil, but one of the earliest, so thus it is very special to me!

-And a few Crocus tommasinianus, the sweet, self-sowing, little ‘Tommy Crocus’ which I have planted under a mature Harry Lauder’s walking stick (Corylus avellana).

Come on out – I am sure every day something new will be emerging from a snowy slumber. We will post more photos of the Ripley Garden soon.

-Janet Draper, Smithsonian Gardens horticulturist

AFTERNOON UPDATE:

Did I jinx myself by saying that I had seen the Witch hazel in the snow?  Guess what is happening in Washington, D.C. right now?. Yep,  More snow. YUCK.  (But, I must confess, right now it is pretty magical out there.)

Just of few things that caught my eye:

Galanthus (Snowdrops)

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’ braving the snow.

Young stems of Acer ‘Sangu kaku’ -(Coral Bark Maple)

Ripley Garden with a dusting of snow on February 25, 2014.

Eranthus hymalis flower “bubbles”