When my sister visited over the holidays, we, of course, got to talking about our childhood. One of the things she reminded me of was discovering a witch hazel tree behind our "new" house (the second house we lived in.) Growing up in the woods, we didn't see many flowers, other than a few wild varieties. But here was a tree blooming in the winter! It was like a miracle to us. Although the flowers are quite small, the fact that they bloom in January or February increases their impact greatly.  Here's a photo of our witch hazel in full bloom.

When I took classes at Longwood Gardens, and studied flowering shrubs, the professor was not at all enthused about forsythia. He felt the flowers didn't make up for the fact that it was a plain green shrub the rest of the year. But sometimes with plants, they only need to do one thing, if they do it really well. And those sunny gold flowers early in the season, when we're tired of winter, seem to be quite enough. Witch hazel flowers are in the same category.

Baby seedlings continue to grow in our basement. Even at this tender age, characteristics of the mature plant develop. In this photo of blue flax, you can see the fine, blue-gray foliage typical of the plant. Individual flowers bloom only a day, but the plant flowers a month or more.

After the holiday break, we're settling into winter here on the farm. I must say, the weather hasn't been too bad thus far. It seems like whatever system that moves in either veers to the west or east and just touches us lightly.  I hope that continues, although you know winter has some tricks up its sleeve.


The herb shop is open part-time now. Our hours are Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9am to 5 pm. This time of year,we get lots of customers working on projects. Essential oils, supplies and containers are big sellers. Also folks come in looking for moisturizing products to relieve dry winter skin. Bulk herbs and spices are popular as people try out new recipes or make hearty cold weather dishes.

Another thing keeping me busy is writing a gardening/plant column for The Essential Herbal. Founder and editor, Tina Sams asked me to contribute on a regular basis, writing about herbal topics from a growing point of view. I've always enjoyed writing so it's been fun.

But mostly, I'm thinking about spring. I told my sister that spring is just around the corner, because I started my first batch of seeds. Early things, like pansies, a seed grown lavender, echinacea and some other perennials. Here are the babies under lights in the basement.

Then I went looking for other signs of spring. On one of the warm days, the second greenhouse toad (referred to as toad Jr.) came out of the dirt. I tried to get him to turn around before I took the picture by scratching his head. He seemed to like the scratching, but wouldn't turn around.

And check out these fat, fuzzy buds on our star magnolia. They will become clear white star shaped blooms before the leaves emerge on the tree.

And although the top of my horehound plant is dead, there's lots of new growth at the bottom.