Winter Colour in your garden

by Rosemary Martin

 

Winter colour

I place more importance on winter colour in the garden than summer flowers.

From October through to February, we can only gaze out at our gardens from the warmth of our houses, often with precious little else to see other than the dead foliage of the previous season's herbaceous perennials, dull deciduous shrubbery, and trees that are stripped bare of their leaves. And yet there are so very many beautiful evergreen and variegated shrubs and trees to be found. There are winter berries for colour and deciduous shrubs grown mainly for their vivid bark which brightens up a cheerless winter scene.

I love the colours of my garden in the winter months; planted with a great many evergreen architectural plants and shrubs, it is an ever changing tapestry which sets the garden ablaze with colour. Even the trees were chosen for their winter colour and texture. For example I have a Silver Birch tree, Betula utilis Jacquemontii, which has startling white smooth bark that looks as if it has been whitewashed, and about five different varieties of Eucalyptus trees which have blue foliage, some with whitish pink bark. They look stunning and are quite hardy. I have dogwoods that are pretty mundane when they are adorned with foliage during the summer months, but when the leaves drop, the brilliant reds, greens and yellows of their bark really brightens up the garden. There is a new dogwood I have, which to my mind is particularly beautiful and is suitably named Cornus sanguinea `Midwinter Fire`.

I also take care to make sure that the textures and colours don`t clash with each other by first placing groups of plants or shrubs together, much the same as if one was matching fabrics and wallpaper. I often look at a border and think that perhaps something doesn`t quite fit, and would perhaps look better a few feet along the border. If that happens I water the offending plant well for a few hours, then move it to its new home, having first prepared a large enough hole with compost and water. I don`t lose any plants at all. So don`t worry if you don`t get the planting arrangements right first time!

I have walked around my garden and listed below some of my colourful and structural favourites for you to look up in your gardening book, or on the internet. The names of some of them may not be spelt correctly..

Silver Birch Jacquemontii Cotoneaster Lonicera purpusii Pine trees Blue cedrus Cordyline Australis Euonymus Elaeagnus Red bark maple Eucalyptus Bottlebrush (Callistemon) Golden Choisya Lavender Bay laurel Yew Clematis Armandii Arbutus unedo Pyracanthus Escallonia Pieris Yukka Hebes Mahonia Charity Euphorbia Characias

Phygellius Myrtle Senecio sunshine Variagated Holly Rhododendron Azalea Portugese laurel Viburnum Tinus Var. Tree heathers Box Eleagnus Berberis Skimmia Osmanthus Photinia Red Robin Ceanothus Forsythia Dogwoods Crinodendron Phormium Fatsia Japonica Lonicera - Bag. Gold Bamboo Nigra Coloured sages Helleborus Heathers

Spend some time on a lazy autumn or winter day looking round some
garden centres and see what they have in the way of plants with winter
interest. It is surprising how many people only visit their local garden centres
on warm sunny days. They often miss the best stuff