Since my move to Western Pennsylvania, I've discovered that the very best spot for this plant is tumbling over a stone wall. Winter jasmine's habit makes it hard to profile. Call it either a vine that won't climb or a shrub that won't stand up. What it does best is tumble, begging for the chance to flaunt its early blooms. Dang, no fragrance.
Winter is officially over when the witch hazel blooms.
Go look it up. That's why I've made it my business to grow more than a dozen different varieties, searching for the earliest of all. Early insects, starving for a drop of nectar, find the tiny yellow blossoms irresistible. Though technically hard here in USDA Zone 5b, the short chains of pale yellow flowers are not. Four years out of five they're killed by a March frost.