Wealden Times | WT216 | February 2020 | Interiors supplement inside

Garden
‘Deben’ is a deciduous shrub with small pink buds
opening to become highly fragrant white flowers.
These plants are well suited to a path-side position,
where you can catch their exquisite fragrance, but
they need to be able to bow out and retreat into
the background once they come into leaf as they
are fairly dull for most of the rest of the year.
yellow/orange tinged with red.
Cornus stolonifera ‘Flaviramea’
has yellow-green stems;
Cornus alba ‘Kesselringii’
has young growth of a
deep purple colour.
Willows can (literally)
run about in the
garden, so should be carefully positioned,
as they can be invasive and hard to remove. They are fast
growing and some have brightly coloured stems to rival
the dogwoods. Salix ‘Britzensis’ is one of the best for
stem colour, but will need regular pollarding or coppicing
in early spring for fresh new stems. Just like Cornus,
Willows are best grown near water or in boggy places.
Rubus is an amazing ornamental blackberry with
powdery white stems that clump up to form thickets of
living barbed wire. It will need a fair amount of space
and looks striking next to dogwoods, a look that could be
perfected with an underplanting of cyclamen, snowdrops
and the black grass Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’.
STARK STEMS & SEEDHEADS
Plants like Teasels, Phlomis and Sedum have long lasting
seedheads that stand stoutly through the winter weather,
glistening in the frost and providing architectural interest at
lower levels. They are also useful for wildlife – birds will eat
the seeds and insects will use hollow stems for refuge until
the spring. Tempting as it is to tidy everything up in the
autumn, if herbaceous plants die gracefully, they can add a
layer of ephemeral, ghostly beauty in the winter landscape.
BARELY BLOSSOMING
Late winter and early spring flowering shrubs, if they are
deciduous, tend to blossom on bare stems. They are usually
pale coloured and can be highly scented, often growing in
semi-shade at the edge of woodland where early emerging
insects, moths and beetles will be lured in by their perfume.
Grow a winter-scented plant somewhere near to the house
– by the front or back door, near a path or gate, where you
will be able to walk past regularly, inhaling as you go.
Chimonanthes praecox and Lonicera ‘Winter Beauty’,
a winter flowering honeysuckle have powerful perfume.
Plant them where they can fade into the background
once the flowers are over. If you have the space for a
specimen, try a Witch Hazel – Hamamelis x intermedia
‘Pallida’ has scented flowers that climb its bare branches
like little yellow spiders. Viburnum x bodnantense
UNDERGARMENTS
Bare stems and branches are companionably set off with
contrasting carpets of late winter and early spring flowers
beneath them – try Cyclamen coum, Anemone blanda, or bulbs
like Snowdrops, Winter Aconite and Crocus. These are all
little treasures and best seen in massed throngs beneath the
trees, where they make the most of the light before the dense
canopy of leaves closes in on them. There’s the wonderful and
aptly named ‘February Gold’ narcissus for an uplifting throng
of golden daffodil without too much floppy leaf later on.
Hellebores are good and hardy, often flowering where
not much else will and are a great asset in the garden
at this time of the year. Helleborus niger (the Christmas
Rose) flowers around now and then a little later comes the
showier Helleborus orientalis cultivars, which have flowers
in shades from darkest burgundy through to purest white.
Low-growing evergreens look good next to bare
stems – try the scented Christmas box Sarcococca
confusa, slow growing dwarf conifers, or hardy ferns
such as polystichums for all year foliage interest.
Structure is vital in the garden, perhaps even more
so in winter when we can’t distract with flowers and
foliage. Architecture, focal points and framework
plants come in different forms and those with elegant
skeletons, or striking bark – that might be overlooked
during the rest of the year, shine out beautifully. Now
please excuse me while I go out and wash some trees.
Jo’s 2020 gardening courses are now booking, call
01233 861149 or see hornbrookmanor.co.uk for details.
Top: Long-lasting seedheads are also useful for wildlife – birds
will eat the seeds and insects will use hollow stems for refuge
until the spring Top inset: Whorls of Phlomis seedheads
Above: Dogwood stems in a winter container
131 wealdentimes.co.uk