Buttercup Winterhazel
This small shrub seems to have year-round interest. It is spring blooming, with fragrant yellow flowers. It has yellow fall color and an interesting, twiggy form when the leaves drop in fall. In winter and early spring, the buds are quite alluring. They are fat and pointed, pale green blushed with pink. The mature size is 4 to 5 feet high and 6 to 8 feet wide. It is hardy to zone 6.
I saw this shrub some time ago in a planter at a local outdoor garden container store that sells ‘the largest selection of pots’ in the city. There are also chimineas there and some garden ornaments. I asked the owner what kind of plant it was and he fished around in the soil around it and offered my a tulip tag. Not quite. But today at the nursery I found two species of Corylopsis in a warm little hoop house and immediately recognized them as the same sweet plant. The other species was C. gonata, a Japanese winterhazel that has pale yellow flowers with purple anthers. It’s hardy in zones 5 to 8.
Excellent old plantings of it can be seen at Bishop’s Close.
Spike winterhazel, Corylopsis spicata, is also a beauty.