TRUE WINTER-FLOWERING PLANTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20354, 10 March 1928, Page 3

TRUE WINTER-FLOWERING PLANTS.

It is during winter that we appreciate most fully those plants which naturally produce their flowers in the open at that season, and although it is not unusual in some seasons to find quite a variety of plants showing a few flowers, such as Laburnums, Exochordas, and Crinodendrons, we know this effort on their part ia untimely, and that their next season’s display may be to a certain extent impoverished by it. This is not the case, however, with Jasminum nudillorum, whose bright yellow stars are produced in mid-winter. The culture and propagation of this plnat is of the simplest, as any fully-estahlished specimen will produce plenty of suckers, and if these are lifted carefully and placed in nursery rows, they soon make useful plants. Among other winter-flowering plants are the well-known Viburnum Tinus, which is covered with clusters of tiny white flowers from December onwards. All the members of the Arbutus family usually met with produce their waxy-white bells while at the same time carrying their crop of red, straw-berry-like fruits. Garrya elliptica is too well known to need further commendation, but it seems a pity that so many of the male form have been planted to the exclusion of the female, with the' natural result that seeds or berries are very rarely seen. Among the Ericas we have also some winter-flowering plants, and where Heaths do well they are worthy of extended culture ; and E. codonoides is one of the best, producing its pure white flowers while the earlier forms or hybrids of E. carnea commence to make their annual display. The Glastonbury Thorn, Crataegus praccox, does sometimes make an effort and produces its clusters of Haw-thorn-scented flowers in mid-winter, but, apart from the legend attached to this variety, it is not a very conspicuous or interesting subject. The Witch Hazel, Hamamelis arborea is a decided acquisition ; against a background of evergreens, its yellow, spider-like flowers are seen to advantage.—Gardeners’ Chronicle.