Jon Uglow on the Delights of Winter

I must confess I don’t like winter.  It’s not the cold that bothers me but more the darkness, the seemingly endless periods of grey.  I am sure it seeps its way in to our systems somehow and influences the way we dress – look around you when in town and notice how all the winter overcoats seem to embrace the gloom, coming in various shades of blue, black and grey.  There are of course the odd brave souls who defy the norm, venturing out in bright red or lime green with a multi-coloured bobble hat and spotty wellies - and thank goodness for them.   

It’s a bit like it in the plant world. Whilst most have packed away their summer pastels and dropped their autumn golds, the odd few gleam, all the more intense for their lack of competition.  A December classic is of course holly – never mind the ancient traditions behind why it’s brought into the home; when the natural world is so starved of colour, why wouldn’t you pick a berried bundle and make a display of it!  Even the leaves have a high gloss on them, reflecting back the light.

Holly can be a bit of a tricky plant to grow – they are slow at the best of times and tend to like it fairly dry. Pyracantha bushes on the other hand are extremely versatile.  Trained against the wall of a house (even awkward north facing walls where most other things struggle!) these evergreens put on a good amount of growth each year and like holly, are festooned with berries in the winter months, varying from scarlet through to almost yellow, depending on the variety.  I really like it when they are trained to form a grid, almost like a lattice work on the facade of a house, but beware when it comes to pruning as they have vicious thorns.  ‘Golden Charmer’ is a good variety to try but there are many to choose from.

Besides the beauty of berries, this time of year in the garden does offer up a few choice flowers. Cyclamen we are all familiar with, their petals like plain butterflies frozen mid hover, but a little flower that I am quite excited to be trying this year is Narcissus romieuxii ‘Julia Jane’.  It is neat – dainty even - strongly scented and has soft yellow petals.  If planted out in pots in full sun or just partial shade, this little cousin of the daffodil should give you a foretaste of spring right when you need it most.  However, the exact timing of appearance from any flower is reliant on the one thing that dominates everything horticultural through the winter: the weather.

Last year December was cold.  It snowed more than I can remember in all my lifetime and as a result I’ve been thinking all year that this winter, I will be prepared.  Buying a 4x4 seemed a bit drastic, but I am now a proud owner of a blue plastic snow shovel, a little red sledge and my heating tank is full of oil.  To prepare the garden though is a bit trickier. One school of thought is that anything still standing as a survivor of last winter should be ok again, unless things are significantly worse.  However, if you know that you have some tender items such as Olives, Pittosporums and Ceanothus, there are a few sensible things that you could try without too much effort.

Firstly, add a good mulch layer of broken down bark around the roots of all perennials and shrubs to give some insulation whilst still allowing water to drain through.  The trunks or stems of any tender plants such as Olive or Bay can be wrapped in hessian or horticultural fleece, but the main thing is to make sure that snow doesn’t stand wet against the bark for several days. Never use anything non-porous like bubble wrap over a plant as it will trap in moisture which can lead to disease; however putting it around the outside of the pots does help insulate them against becoming frozen solid.

The beauty of snow when it does come is that for a short space of time the dreary grey is replaced by a pristine duvet of white.  With the smoothing over of all texture and colour we are left only with shape and form, and in both the garden and the wider landscape, form is most clearly expressed in the tracery of leaf-less tree canopies and the lines of our hedges. 

Hedges are amazing. They not only provide dense corridors of habitat for wildlife and birds but in design terms, give space a context.  They filter wind, provide privacy and give a sense of protection and shelter.  Most of the year we don’t particularly celebrate them – indeed, I have certainly moaned about the ones in my garden when it came to cutting them! – but without them we would be lost.  Here at the nursery we are currently planting hundreds and hundreds of bare-root hedging plants – little sticks almost lost within their protective rabbit spiral.  Looking at them freshly planted you wonder if it’s not all futile, but with a good layer of mulch to control the weeds, it’s remarkable how quickly they bush up and grow.  After a year or two, you’re looking at a hedgerow that really defines an area, be it beside a road or in a garden. 

For some of us a year or two is just that bit too long, so more instant hedges are the option especially in areas closer to a house.  Yew is an old favourite planted from a container, but Viburnum tinus or Osmanthus x burkwoodii are two evergreens that give a more relaxed feel.  I really like the Portuguese laurel, Prunus lusitanica which has a lovely glossy green leaf but there are so many options to choose from.  All have their individual merits, be it berries, flowers or thorns, but their common quality is that when you’re inside next to the fire looking out at the snow falling, their silent lines give you the familiar reference points amidst the white.

If you would like advice on preparing your garden for winter, or planting to enhance your garden during the winter months, please don't hesitate to Contact us.