Dear Friends, won't you come out and play...

We can wander the garden and see the last of the fall blooms.

One of my favorites is a little witch hazel tree that never fails to bloom the first week of November. It lights up the shade and glows when in bloom.

flower visitors are rewarded with sugary nectar and sticky pollen

If we stand very close and the day is warm, we'll catch a slight sweet scent. That sweet scent attracts the small gnats, flies and bees that pollinate it.

I've shared this before, but, just in case you're a new visitor~This garden wasn't a garden when we moved here. We live on land that was at one time a forest of hardwoods that was the source of building material for a growing Nashville. A woodland of secondary growth oaks, hickories and ash trees replaced the old growth forest. Many years later (mid-fifties) developers carved roads, built houses and created deep lots with expansive lawns. My yard has shallow soil and exposed limestone. It's not a cedar glade (too far from them to be one) but, it has some cedar glade characteristics that make gardening a challenge. It also had some very charming wildflowers in the woodland edges, declining redbuds, several lovely Ostry virginianas and absolutely no shrubs.

It took me a few years to figure out and then plant the shrubs and small trees that would make sense (survive) on the shallow, clay soil that was wet all winter and dry most of the summer. Hamamelis virginiana was one of the first to be planted. It's a slow grower, but flowered that first autumn. I love them so much I added one more and then, a few years ago, I planted three Hamamelis vernalis in the Garden of Benign Neglect (back yard) and one in the front garden to honor my mother. The Ozark witch hazels bloom in late winter for the earliest pollinators.  

 The question I ask you gentle readers is this: "Can there ever be too many beautiful late fall or early blooming small trees/shrubs in a garden? I think not! There's always room for flowering plants that offer a sweet scent to the garden and food for pollinators.

If you walk with me in the garden, I might wax poetically about witch hazels. Would you mind if I tell you how much I love them?

I love the odd little flower that blooms every autumn.
I love its spidery petals that curl open on warm days and curl up on cold ones.
I love it's soft sweet scent.
I love that it rewards pollinator visitors with sweet nectar and sticky pollen.
I love that it blooms as the rest of the garden is going to seed and shutting down for the winter.

I love the leaf shape and how it yellows up in autumn. 

I love that the fruit ripens into little capsules that pop open to expel the seeds in fall.
I love that the branches were once used as divining rods to find underground water sources.
I love that it's happy in my garden!

If you take a walk with me we'll stop and admire the yellow blooms against November's beautiful blue sky, we'll look for pollinators and we'll get close enough to smell its fragrant flowers. I am sure you'll agree with me when I sigh and exclaim, "Nature is brilliant and amazing."

xoxogail

It bears repeating...If you want to have pollinators in your garden and visiting your witch hazels and other fall blooming flowers you must never, ever, ever, ever, ever use pesticides. I mean never!


Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.