Late winter jasmine

click photo to enlarge
The garden is full of bright drifts of narcissi, pansies are pointing their petals up to the sky, the pulmonaria is showing blue, pink and white, and primulas are adding their clown colours to the borders. In the rockery the winter-flowering heather is a riot of purple and white, and in the hedge the forsythia is competing with the daffodils for the title of brightest yellow. The crocuses and snowdrops are gone, but the red tulips are in full bud, ready to burst out in a show of colour. Everything (except the occasional hail storm and the cold wind) says it's spring, including the willow trees whose leaves seem to open more with each passing day.

Everything that is, except for the winter jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum). It seems determined to forget its name, forget the season, and bloom on into April, its little yellow, star-like flowers, contrasting with the thin, straight shoots and nearly non-existent leaves: spots of bright colour on hedges that still have only unfurling honeysuckle leaves, or, here and there, the fresh green of new hawthorn.

So, in recognition of its stamina, its wish to be seen, and even though it's overpowered by the spring colour, I took this photograph of one of the remaining flowers of this delicate winter-flowering shrub.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 35mm macro (70mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/50 seconds
ISO: 200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On