Northeast Gardening: What do you miss most in the winter?, 1 by Katye

Katye wrote:
Geum 'Mango Lassi' indeed. She's a beauty & a performer as well. There are other Geums that are bi-tonal, but not readily available in the US.

Dicentra - a special young visitor dubbed the Dicentra "Flower Purses". We agreed that it was an appropriate name, as they would be a suitable size for Garden Faeries. When she spotted the pre-bloom Papaver somnif. buds, they were deemed "overnight bags".

S. Iris: 'Butter & Sugar'. Love it - floral sunshine. I have decided to go the route of the JI's and the SI's - they do well here & my soil is too rich for the germanicas. But I really like them all. A lot...

The Hydrangea is a paniculata called 'PeeWee' - it's about 7 - 8 years old, and grown as a standard. It looked so pathetic the first few years - the trunk was like a stork leg. But it has matured & is huge, or perhaps my expectations were for less height.

As far as Osmanthus goes, I have many delavayi and burkwoodii. These are uber fragrant - you can smell them 50 - 75' away. I thought they would be borderline here, but I haven't lost one yet. Some are 15 -18 yrs. old - the Burkwoodii has the most blossom volume. I like the heterophyllus types too - got O. 'Goshiki' in 2006 and hoping it produces some flowers this year. All are low-maintenance plants in my region.

Daphne 'Carol Mackie' is beautiful; very refined & the aroma is lovely. These are hard to get here - the Landscapers buy up all available stock at the various nursuries. So I have struck out 4 years in a row. Brigg's Moonlight is another that is nice. The ones I have are 'Aureomarginata'. I would recommend a small one 'Lawrence Crocker' - hmmm. I believe that is the name and I think it is a burwkoodii X. It stays under 18", has small Rosy-purple flower clusters and is highly fragrant. I'm not certain about tenderness - It dealt well with a week of 15-20° without leaf damage or breakage from our heavy, wet snow which was ice at that point!

Pictures - none to show at present that are worth seeing. I redid several areas last year so the pics will come as these areas wake up this Spring. But here's part of a long border that resides right outside my family room: