ARE you someone who has to have just one unusual plant in your garden …I am!
Or are you happy with a neat, tidy landscaped garden that lets you do other things at this stage of your life when you are just too busy.
Whichever you are, it doesn’t matter as long as it fits in with your lifestyle.
I never find gardening a chore as I love it and escape to it whenever I can but many of you don’t want to be “a slave” to your garden.
You can achieve this with simplicity and year round constancy of the slow-growing evergreens that only need a trim a couple of time a year and some quick deciduous trees for summer shade.
On the other hand, you have the garden tragics who have a very diverse range of plants which shine at different times of year.
Let’s look at some winter wonders. Coloured stems and bark can be spectacular as well as obtuse shapes of branches and stems.
Bark can be beautiful in winter when exposed, for example some of the maples and birches have wonderful bark colours and textures then the red and yellow viburnums, the red and yellow Salixes.
Tortured deciduous trees and shrubs add an amazing dimension to a winter garden; some useful species are Salix, Robinia and the hazels and filberts.
Winter flowers are always very cheerful on a cold, bleak day, at present I still have roses, the chaenomeles are just starting, jonquils are perfumed and pretty and Camellias flower throughout the winter.
Later, Viburnum bodnantense “Dawn” will show herself, winter sweet and winter flowering honeysuckle and yellow jasmine will also charm you during the winter months. Yellow is a great winter colour, whereas many aren’t that fussed with it in summer.
Have you thought of using Hollies, Skimmias or Mahonias for your winter colour? All are very attractive evergreens as are many of the dwarf conifers, Camelias and Rhododendrums but some need some protection of a microclimate so are not suitable to a very young garden.
Now is the time to plant those deciduous trees that will create protection for your underplanting later on.
Don your coat and happy gardening.
