Spring’s blooming shrubs offer color, fragrance

I still remember the first time I met Corylopsis pauciflora, Buttercup Winterhazel at the Scott Arboretum on the Swarthmore College campus. Years later this shrub still charms me in late winter to early spring with its fragrant pale yellow bell-shaped flowers hanging from bare branches.

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ERICA GLASENER/Special

Buttercup Winterhazel blooms in late winter to early spring and has fragrant pale yellow bell-shaped flowers.

WHERE TO FIND IT
• Black pussy willow: Habersham Gardens, 2067 Manchester St. NE, Atlanta, 404-873-2484
• Azaleas: Habersham Gardens; McMahan's Nursery, 5727 Cleveland Hwy., Clermont, 770-983-3666
• Chinese snowball viburnum: Ashe-Simpson Garden Center, 4961 Peachtree Industrial Blvd., Atlanta, 770-458-3224
• Korean spice viburnum: McMahan's Nursery

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Erica Glasener is the host of "A Gardener's Diary" on HGTV, Thursday mornings at 7 a.m. For garden questions visit her at www.ericaglasener.com

As the season progresses, the show continues with its handsome witchhazel-like leaves, which are dark blue-green. Growing 4-6 feet tall, this graceful beauty stands as an alternative to Forsythia, which produces a burst of bright yellow flowers in early spring, followed by nondescript leaves the rest of the season.

Buttercup Winterhazel is well suited for the mixed border or the edge of a woodland with hellebores and early daffodils. For gardens with lots of room, the Winterhazel Corylopsis spicata “Ogon” grows to 8 feet high and 12 feet wide. The buttercup yellow flowers are followed by golden yellow foliage which fades to chartreuse and then pale yellow in the fall.

For drama in the garden, the black pussy willow, Salix gracilistyla “Melanostachys,” produces rich purple-black catkins atop dark red stems in March to early April. Keep in mind that even slower growing willows like this one can get quite large over time, 20-30 feet. Pruning them back hard every few years will help keep them in check. While black pussy willow will grow happily in moist soils, it also will tolerate dry conditions.

When it comes to azaleas, the natives are hard to beat. Not only are they beautiful but many are also fragrant. Few suffer from any serious pest and disease problems. While its true that they are deciduous, they don’t hang onto their dead flowers like many evergreen types. For the most effective display, plant native azaleas against a backdrop of evergreens. With some planning, it’s possible to have flowers from early spring until late summer.

Among the early bloomers, Rhododendron canescens, the Piedmont Azalea has flowers that range in color from pure white to pink to strong rose. The strong honeysuckle fragrance explains why some refer to these natives as “wild honeysuckle.” Another spring bloomer with fragrant flowers is the Florida azalea Rhododendron austrinum. Its many forms display fragrant flowers in shades of yellow, orange and red. Underplant native azaleas with ferns, bulbs and woodland phlox.

Another spring favorite of mine is Chinese snowball viburnum, Viburnum macrocephalum. In late spring this show stopper bears flower clusters up to 8 inches wide that start out chartreuse before they turn white. Semi-evergreen in our Southern climate, it can grow 20 feet high and 15 feet wide. For contrast I have a Chinese snowball next to the more dainty Spiraea thunbergii “Ogon,” which has chartreuse willow-like foliage and tiny white flowers in early spring. For a creeping plant under these shrubs, “Georgia Blue” is a charmer.

Spring is full of fragrant possibilities, and viburnums like the Korean spice viburnum, Viburnum carlesii “Compactum,” delight the nose with spicy flowers. Pink to red buds opening to white. The old-fashioned native Sweet shrub, Calycanthus floridus, has dark red blooms that perfume the air with a scent that is described by some as a combination of strawberries and bananas.

Hybrid “Hartlage Wine” boasts striking wine-red flowers over 2-1/2 inches across but it lacks the sweetness of our native.