A garden in winter

Winter can be the perfect time of year to enjoy your garden. In every other season there is always something to do. Weeds to pull, leaves to rake or shrubs to prune. In winter you can wander around your garden and do absolutely nothing with a clear conscience. You can sit on a garden bench with your hands wrapped around a steaming cup of tea and dream of your plans for the summer. The veg you will grow, the flowers you will pick and the garden parties you will throw. Anything is possible in the depths of winter.

Winter is the perfect time of year to enjoy the play of light through bare trees

Enjoying a cup of tea on your garden bench in the winter garden does assume that you have planned for some winter interest in the garden. It’s not much fun sitting in a garden where everything has slumped and all is grey and mildew. Even the smallest garden has room for a winter performer. At this time of year you don’t need the full fanfare of summer blowsiness but a single winter-flowering shrub combined with a few scattered winter perennials such as hellebores can work wonders.  There are several flowering shrubs that will light up the winter garden. Witch hazels, Chimonanthus and Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ are just three winter-flowering shrubs that also give the bonus of scent. 

Scented, winter flowering witch-hazel

Plants chosen for winter-interest should be placed carefully in the garden. They can look quite drab in the summer so you want them to retire gracefully once the days start getting longer. Place them so spring and summer perennials will grow up in front of them to grab the spotlight as summer arrives. Winter performers should be easily seen from the living room window, if possible. When you are planting, make sure you pop inside to check if you can see your winter star as you are sat in your favourite chair . A garden is viewed more frequently from inside the house during the cold months. Another good spot for a winter star is the front garden. Days may pass without going into the back garden in winter, but you are likely to pass through your front garden at least twice a day.  

Not many herbaceous perennials flower in winter but there are a few stalwarts that brave the cold. My favourite is the hellebore, also known as the Christmas or Lenten Rose. It prefers shade, and makes a perfect combination planted together with an evergreen fern such as the Soft Shield Fern. A hellebore flower floated in water makes a lovely Christmas table decoration. Other winter flowering perennials include the Algerian iris, or Iris unguicularis. It is from the Mediterranean and likes a dry position. I have seen it thriving at the base of mature plane trees. Late winter bulbs such as snowdrops, crocuses, species iris and winter aconites look great sprinkled through the border, heralding the bolder glories of spring. These delicate little bulbs are also lovely in pots by your front and back doors.

Hellebore

Iris 'Harmony' and Crocus tomasinianus

It’s not just flowers that create winter interest in the garden. Deciduous shrubs and trees can have beautifully coloured stems and barks that is only revealed once their leaves have fallen. Dogwoods, or Cornus, are fantastic value. Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’ has flaming red stems which look brilliant in groups of three or five. Place them where they will catch the setting, or rising, sun so they can create some backlit drama in the border. My favourite is Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ whose tawny yellow stems look as if they have been dipped in cerise paint. Cornus stolonifera ‘Flaviramea’ is a stunning lime green. Shrubby willows can also have bright winter stem colour. The colour looks best on young stems so these shrubs should be cut back down to the ground in spring to ensure a crop of bright new stems for the next winter.  

Conrnus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire'

Trees with interesting bark include Acer griseum, Prunus rufa and the ever popular Himalayan birch, or Betula utilis var. jaquemontii. The snowy birch trunks can look very dramatic clustered in groups.

So there are many ways of injecting some winter interest into your garden that will brighten the view from your windows, or may even entice you outside with a cup of tea. I should mention, however, that there are a few garden jobs for this time of year. Many trees and shrubs can be pruned in winter, for example. The list of tasks is tiny compared to the summer, though, and a well-pruned shrub is a great reason for that cup of tea!