The Garden Awakens
February 2023
Right now you will find splashes of yellow blooms throughout Boxerwood: the flowers of Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), a member of the dogwood family native to Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Primarily grown as an ornamental in the U.S., its cherry-like fruits are edible, although extremely tart. In its native range, the fruit in its firm, unripe stage is sometimes used in place of olives, and the soft ripe fruits are used in fruit drinks, syrups, jams, and baked goods. The trees are potentially long-lived, with life spans of 100 years or more. Early-blooming flowers are a pollinator food source, and the blooms are very cold hardy, tolerating temperatures down to 18 degrees.
This time of year you can also find several varieties of witch hazel in flower at Boxerwood, as well as Persian ironwood (Parrotia persica), a tree native to northern Iran that is in the witch hazel family. Although there are witch hazel species native to our region, the varieties currently in bloom at Boxerwood are cultivars derived from species native to China and Japan.
Also look for crocuses and daffodils! In the coming weeks some early-blooming magnolias will flower, although their blooms are very sensitive to frost and often don’t last long. So, visit soon and often to see what's new!
