{"id":13540,"date":"2024-02-12T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=13540"},"modified":"2024-01-07T20:15:53","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T01:15:53","slug":"seven-winter-blooming-shrubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2024\/02\/12\/seven-winter-blooming-shrubs\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Winter Blooming Shrubs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you live where winter temperatures are generally moderate in the low teens, a number of shrubs bloom in winter. In the Delmarva and mid-South regions (USDA hardiness zones 6-7), these seven plants bloom reliably for 2-3 weeks before spring officially arrives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fragrant honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

1. Winter honeysuckle<\/strong> (Lonicera fragrantissima<\/em>), aka fragrant honeysuckle, are covered with small fragrant white flowers in midwinter on this vigorous 10-12-feet-high shrub. Note: winter honeysuckle is listed as invasive in some southern states because they are prolific seed producers. In the Tri-Cities area of Tennessee (Zones 6b-7a), flowers rarely produce viable seeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Wintersweet<\/strong> (Chimonanthus praecox<\/em>) are covered with highly fragrant yellow\/slight red blotched flowers in late January into February. This deciduous shrub grows 12 feet high by 10 feet wide and is moderately drought resistant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox<\/em>) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

3. Sweetbox<\/strong> (Sarcococca hookeriana<\/em> ‘Humilis’) is a low-growing evergreen ground cover. During warm spells in February or March, small fragrant white flowers emerge from within the glossy boxwood-like evergreen foliage. It spreads slowly by underground runners where it prospers around woodland trees and dry sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Chinese paper bush<\/strong> (Edgeworthia chrysantha<\/em>) is a deciduous suckering shrub that typically grows to 4-6 feet tall and wide. Clusters of tiny, apetalous, tubular, yellow flowers open in February. Blooms are also delightfully fragrant. Dark blue-green, lanceolate-oblong, 3-6-inches long deciduous leaves are an added plus in the spring-summer landscape. Irrigate every 7-10 days during prolonged dry spells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chinese paper bush<\/strong> (Edgeworthia chrysantha<\/em>) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

5. Carolina Jessamine<\/strong> (Gelsemium sempervirens<\/em>) produce sweet scented, golden yellow flowers February – March. This vine is trained to a trellis or vertical wall. It is often seen growing wild as a ground cover or pruned into 3-6 feet cascading mound. Many people wrongly call them forsythias which bloom in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Chinese Witchhazel<\/strong> (Hamamelis x intermedia<\/em>) are hybrids of two Asian witchhazels (H. japonica<\/em> x H. mollis<\/em>). Shrubs grow 6-12 feet tall and wide and sucker freely at the base. Some of the better cultivars include \u2018Diane\u2019, \u2018Gingerbread\u2019, \u2018Jelena\u2019, \u2018Orange Beauty\u2019, \u2018Primavera\u2019, and \u2018Westerstede\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

7a. Cornelian Cherry Dogwood <\/strong>(Cornus mas<\/em>), native to central and southern Europe and western Asia, is a multi-stemmed, low-branched dogwood tree or shrub. Tiny, golden yellow flowers cover the branches during most of March despite some cold wintery nights. \u2018Golden Glory\u2019 and \u2018Spring Glow\u2019 are popular cultivars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

7b. Japanese cornel<\/strong> (C. officinalis<\/em>) is filled with golden yellow flowers in very early March along with an attractive exfoliating winter bark. Both species grow 20-25 feet tall and slightly less in width. Leading varieties: ‘Kintoki’ (smaller 15 x15 feet specimen and heavy bloomer) and ‘Sunsphere’ (heavy blooming).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rarely will you find these flowering shrubs for sale at local garden centers. It is best to buy these shrubs in late winter a number of fine on-line nurseries that do list them for spring planting. Plan on a 1-2 year waiting period before shrubs bloom for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These shrubs are also valued by early pollinating bees and butterflies. Birds attracted to red fruits in September. All shrubs are also moderately deer resistant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you live where winter temperatures are generally moderate in the low teens, a number of shrubs bloom in winter. In the Delmarva and mid-South regions (USDA hardiness zones 6-7), these seven plants bloom reliably for 2-3 weeks before spring officially arrives. 1. Winter honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima), aka fragrant honeysuckle, are covered with small fragrant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,657,910,1319,299,440,144,1373,1498,674,666,800,1324,10,1525,991,668,1305,853,1435,551,627,1476,1571,843,1060,729,1321,777,630,705,646,884,7,1,113,819,850,708,655,455,1400,848],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13540"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14459,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13540\/revisions\/14459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}