Winter-flowering Winter-flowering

40 Designing for Winter
bark is also rougher, and shreds much finer. I trained and planted both single and
multi-stemmed specimens and positioned them to be backlit by the winter sun,
which transforms the shredding bark into strips of marmalade-coloured tinsel.
As to the display of flowering plants around these majestic trees, I threw
caution to the wind and planted groups of the most profusely scented plants I
could get my hands on. Nothing comes close to the Himalayan daphnes, Daphne
bholua, when in full flower. In my view the best of its many forms is D. bholua
‘Jacqueline Postill’, which flowers from Christmas to March. It dominates its
location, and easily out competes the nearby Christmas box, Sarcococca
confusa. Although there are many other flowering shrubs here, this area of the
garden is dominated by the brilliant stems of the maples. The most commonly
grown maple for winter stem effect must be the Chinese paperbark maple, Acer
griseum (zone 5). This delightful tree has the most wonderful, cinnamon to
copper bark that flakes and curls as stems and branches increase in girth. It is
not silky smooth like Prunus serrula, but it does have the most vibrant autumn
colour. The best colour is produced primarily on acidic soils, although it will
grow on deep fertile alkaline soils.
Throughout the winter garden I relied on witch hazels. Their flowers are
bullet-hardy in the UK, guaranteeing that from late December until March the
collection will have bloom, and so frost-resistant, they survive even the harshest
winter weather, as in the cold night they curl down for protection. Many are
scented, many are not. The most commonly grown yellow-flowered hybrid
witch hazel, Hamamelis intermedia ‘Pallida’, reliably produces the largest
amount of showy flowers of any witch hazel, and, as a bonus, produces a
delightful scent that lingers in the winter air.
Hamamelis intermedia
‘Pallida’ remains the best
of the yellow-flowering
witch hazels.