January Gardening Articles

• Winter Wonderland
• If You Go Down to the Woods Today...

• Viburnums
• Heather

• Winter Scents

Hands up anyone who hasn't got around to emptying outdoor pots of summer plants and planting something for winter! Don't despair, we won't shame you and there is still time to do something about it!

 

As you can see from this photo you can get a great show right outside your back door. Plants are still available to fill your pots and the recipe is simple.

 

Choose plants with colours that compliment your pots or buy pots that compliment the plants that you fancy. Skimmias are at their best now, but sorry girls, its the male varieties that look best! These have bold and showy flower buds which will open to sweetly scented white flowers in spring.

Winter flowering heathers are tough and in flower for the next three months so they are must too. These heathers are not fussed about limey soil and can be planted after flowering into the garden in spring. Here they will provide years of easy low maintenance winter colour.Add to these a few early flowering dwarf bulbs such as Crocus, daffodils or Tulips and that's it! Couldn't be easier could it?

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When all leaves have fallen and the garden is laid bare, one or two shrubs choose this time to perform! Some of the very best winter flowering shrubs are Viburnums and many have the bonus of powerful sweet scent. In fact, many mid winter flowering shrubs have strong scent that they rely on to attract insects to pollinate their flowers. What is good for the bees is good for us too!

Viburnum fragrans is aptly named as its' perfume is very powerful and fragrant it certainly is, however it is more correctly called farreri now but you may find it sold under both names. It is now named after Reginald Farrer who introduced it to cultivation from the Himalayas in the early 1900s and, from my wanderings in that part of the world, it is easily found growing amongst bamboo, hollies and Camellias in places where we would have brambles and ivy! This plant starts to flower in late October and will flower right through to spring. The clusters of blooms are pink at first but quickly fade to white. Viburnum grandiflora (meaning literally large flowers) has pinker similar blooms but is rarely grown nowadays. When these two were crossed a superb hybrid was produced and this is the variety most widely grown today. Given the name of one of Wales' finest gardens Bodnant, the end result was Viburnum x bodnantense.

 

Strong growing, this has hybrid vigour. Its' blooms are also clustered towards each shoot tip and the scent is extremely strong and like most Viburnums this will grow on a wide variety of soils and a varied number of places in the garden. It is a plant that is particularly happy growing on heavier soil and, whilst it will tolerate quite a lot of shade without diminishing the performance, it is not happy in deep shade. When mature, plants will reach 2.5 metres high and provide useful privacy in summer. If this sounds too big then pruning in late spring, after flowering has ended, will keep it in check without the loss of next years flowers.

 

Laurustinus is also a Viburnum but this one is native to the Mediterranean countries and retains its' leaves all year round. Devoid of scent, this is no less a good garden plant, particularly if the variety 'Eve Price' is chosen. It is smaller than its' parent Viburnum tinus and generally ends up around 1.8 metres high. Just like the scented Viburnums above it also begins to flower in early autumn and will produce blooms through to late spring. Not only is 'Eve Price' smaller than ordinary tinus but it has lovely dark pink flower buds that open to flat topped clusters of white blooms. This too is a very versatile Viburnum that can be grown in sun or shade and in any reasonable soil. It makes a perfect large container plant that, given adequate water and regular feed, will last for years as long as the roots are not too cramped. Once again pruning should be done if required in late spring so that next years flower buds have time to form. This is especially important if planted as a hedge. It will look especially attractive with its' winter flowers but pruned at the wrong time it just becomes another green screen.

 

Both of these exceptional garden shrubs can be planted this month (as can all hardy plants) provided that the soil isn't too wet or actually frozen solid.

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In the depths of winter many plants resort to more subtle means of drawing attention to them selves. What they are primarily interested in, is attracting pollinators to their blooms so that they can produce seed. To do this, and that's where we gardeners get interested, they produce strong and sweet scent.

 

Some, like Witch Hazels and Viburnums, need bags of space but can be kept small by cutting back hard each year. Here timing is vital. Cut off most of last years growth immediately after flowering is over. If you delay then there is a real chance that you will be cutting off next years winter flower buds! Most Witch Hazels [Hamamelis] originate in Japan or China and wait until the shortest days of the year to open their masses of tiny strap-like flowers. These flowers are incredibly resilient and during hard frost will roll up and look shrivelled, however, as soon as the temperature warms up, they unfurl again and release their honey-like scent. If you are tempted to extract the sap of witch hazel to grow your own liniment then you would need to grow the rootstock onto which most Hamamelis are grafted. This is Hamamelis virginiana of which I used to grow thousands to supply Optrex a few years ago.

 

A faster but no less big scented hardy shrub at its' best now is the white flowered Viburnum farreri or pink bloomed Viburnum x bodnantense. Both need careful positioning in the garden as the flowers can be lost against the sky, so choose a place where dark evergreens provide a background. The scent from these will fill your garden.

 

Not all honeysuckles are climbers and Lonicera fragrantissima is aptly named. An established bush will be smothered in tiny incredibly sweetly perfumed flowers now and this is the easiest of shrubs to grow! I have a bush planted on the edge of my garden where it has to struggle for existence and it flowers like clockwork every winter. A few branches of this brought into the house will fill a room with scent!

 

Daphnes by contrast can be challenging to grow! The rarely found in the wild native Daphne mezereum can be frustrating and short lived so I recommend planting a Himalayan species which excels now. Daphne bholua may have an odd name but it is a sensationally scented winter flowering shrub. In the Himalayas, the local hill tribes tie its' supple shoots into specific knots to leave a coded message to others that follow. The good form to look out for is called 'Jacqueline Postill'.

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A sure sign that spring is on its' way is the emergence of snowdrops from the cold bare earth. We are fortunate in the West Country to still be able to see these once common native bulbs growing wild. However, the easiest place to see a massed display is in one of the gardens and estates that have cultivated them. Locally there are several that are famous and they throw their gates open for everyone to enjoy them during the next few weeks. I took this photo at the Rococo Garden at Painswick in Gloucestershire a year or two ago and, although the show there was already sensational, they were still planting thousands more for the future.

 

Snowdrops enjoy cool shaded woodland and resent soils that dry out too much in summer. Planting under trees that loose their leaves in winter is best and they are rarely happy amongst lots of evergreens.

 

They can be tricky to get going especially when planting dormant bulbs in late summer and autumn. These seem to go into deep dormancy from which they don't appear to be easily woken. When faced with planting at this time of year it pays to plant bulbs as soon as they are in the shops and to incorporate plenty of well rotted mulch or leaf mould into the soil. Better establishment will be achieved if you can obtain actively growing plants, just as they finish flowering, and plant in spring. This is known as "planting in the green".

 

Some gardeners become fanatical about all the different varieties there are. They are known as 'Galanthaphiles' since snowdrops proper name is Galanthus. No matter whether its rain, snow or sunshine, Galanthophiles will kneel down to look at the smallest differences in each species or named variety. However, to my mind the differences are subtle and its' the pure simplicity of the massed flowers that attract me.

 

You may be lucky enough to know of damp woodlands and valleys where wild snowdrops still can be found in abundance. If you don't, try visiting Exmoor, the Wye valley or parts of Herefordshire, a walk in the countryside now before we get busy in the garden will be a pleasure.

 

Some West Country gardens noted for snowdrops ;

Painswick Rococo Garden, Glos.

Colesbourne Park, Glos.

Rodmarton Manor, Glos.

East Lambrook Garden, Soms.

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