Just because its winter with a bit of planning our gardens can still be very colourful. There are many plants that will flower during the colder days of reduced daylight. Some shrubs lose their leaves revealing amazingly coloured bark. Many plants produce berries that are welcomed as winter food for our birds and wildlife while others retain colourful evergreen foliage.
Most winter flowering shrubs are deciduous producing flowers on bare stems. Lonicera Purpusii Winter Beauty has creamy white lemon scented flowers while Viburnum Bodnantense Dawn has sugar pink musky perfumed flowers. Corylus Avellana Contorta has twisted architectural stems and yellow catkins in January and is enhanced by under planting with dwarf bulbs like Iris Danfordia or I. Reticulata. Hamamelis Mollis, the Chinese Witch Hazel, is a choice plant for a tub or special winter spot. The curious flowers are lemon yellow, burnt orange or red and sweetly scented depending on variety. It must be grown in ericaecous compost in sun or partial shade.
Good evergreen winter flowering shrubs are Garry Elliptica with long silky tassel flowers, Mahonia Media Winter Sun, a good screening shrub with sprays of bright yellow perfumed flowers from November onwards and Sarcoccoca Winter Gem which only grows to 0.5m and is covered in tiny sweetly fragrant white flowers from November to March. Grow in a tub by the front door to Welcome you Home.
Chimonanthus Praecox, the Wintersweet, is a highly fragrant winter flowering wall shrub. The flowers are small and waxy and if you cut a spray and bring it indoors it will scent the entire house. Under plant with early flowering dwarf Narcissus, Winter Aconites, with their bright yellow buttercup flowers, Cyclamen Coum, with bright pink flowers and gorgeously marbled leaves, or pure white Snowdrops.
Leave these bulbs undisturbed and they will seed producing a carpet of winter joy.
Prunus Subhirtella Autumnalis is a small tree suitable in any garden. It will flower from November to March with a sprinkling of scented delicate pink flowers. Another small winter flowering tree is Cornus Mas. It is easy to grow with bright yellow flowers that appear after Christmas and last well into spring. The leaves turn a lovely red purple colour in autumn, a good foil for the glistening bright red cherry like fruits.
Clematis Cirrhosa Freckles and Jingle Bells are both evergreen clematis which produce scented creamy speckled maroon bell flowers in December and January. Clematis Winter Beauty is an evergreen with white bells which grows well on a south facing fence or wall. They will scramble on the minimum of discreet wires. Jasmine Nudiflorum will grow well on north walls bearing bright yellow flowers on bare stems from November onwards.
Hellebores are one of my most valued garden plants. They are easy to grow in dappled shade in soil with added compost or rotted manure. They are evergreen so make excellent ground cover and flower from December through to April. If left undisturbed they cross pollinate and you will have an array of colours. Helleborus Niger is the traditional Christmas Rose, a choice plant with large pearly white flowers, golden stamens and attractive bright green leaves. The Orientalis types now have single and double flowers, depending on the variety, which show an amazing range of colours from White, Yellow, Pink, Red, Maroon and Chocolate. The foliage is strong and bright green an excellent foil for the flowers which are held on strong stems.
The Hollies, Pyracanthas and Cotoneasters are all free berrying plants that produce an abundance of bright orange and red berries in early winter, a valuable food source for the wild birds
Many shrubs shed their leaves in late autumn revealing their winter characteristic of brightly coloured bark. The Silver Birch Trees like Betula Snow Queen have amazingly bright white bark as if they had been painted. Cornus Westonbirt has bright scarlet bark while Cornus Midwinter Fire has stunning orange stems which contrast well when planted near the bright yellow branches of Cornus Flaviramea. All these Cornus varieties should be pruned back to 15cms from ground level in April to produce more highly coloured stems for next winter.
Our Gardens have no excuse to be drab and colourless even on the cold dank days of winter. It’s time to add all that colour and get planting before the ground gets frozen usually in Bedfordshire towards the end of November.
Just because its winter with a bit of planning our gardens can still be very colourful. There are many plants that will flower during the colder days of reduced daylight. Some shrubs lose their leaves revealing amazingly coloured bark. Many plants produce berries that are welcomed as winter food for our birds and wildlife while others retain colourful evergreen foliage.
National Tree Planting Week, which began in 1975, starts this year on November 21st. It is the start of the winter planting season and is a reminder of the valuable contribution trees make to our environment.
By planting a tree in our gardens or as communities we are helping to overcome the effects of climate change, improving the look of our surroundings and offering a great opportunity for wildlife to move into the area.
Red and Yellow and Pink and Green Orange and Purple and Blue these are the colours of a Rainbow which can all be found in your garden every autumn. As the days get shorter and the light levels and temperatures drop deciduous plants will stop producing chlorophyll, their source of nutrition, and shed their leaves. Chlorophyll produces the green leaves we see when plants are actively growing. In autumn the chlorophyll breaks down and the leaves loose the green pigment revealing other colours in the leaves.
