Wealden Times | WT259 | December 2023 | Christmas Supplement inside

Garden
Hawthorn
comes in many
varieties, most
offering good autumn
foliage and berries, as
well as lovely blossom
in spring
istockphoto.com/ Nature, food, landscape, travel / Wirestock / scholes1
Weeping pear (Pyrus salicifolia) has
lovely silvery foliage, small blossoms
and inedible fruit. Low maintenance,
it has good drought resistance and is
susceptible to few pests and diseases.
Shrubs are suffering the effects of
our erratic weather patterns too, and
as they form the backbone of our
gardens, it pays to have some that
are reliable and uncomplaining. We
tend to take some of these workaday
plants for granted, but like our oldest
and best friends they hang on in there
with us, through thick and thin.
Architectural Cotoneaster horizontalis
has blossom that hums with bees
in spring, then red berries and
matching autumn leaves.
Spiraea ‘Goldflame’ has beautiful
spring foliage – shades of orange
tinged with lime green, which turn
a deep maroon-red in autumn. It
should consult a stylist about its
Germolene coloured flowers though.
Cornus alba ‘Elegantissima’ doesn’t
have the bright winter stems of
some varieties, but it has pretty
leaves – soft sage with cream edges
that turn butter yellow in autumn.
Roses
I am a latecomer to roses, but have
really started to appreciate them in
the last few years, because they are
performing really well under the
pressure of droughts and floods. They
seem to put up with most soils and
the modern cultivars are far more
disease resistant. I particularly love
robust species like Rosa rugosa, which
makes a wonderful three season hedge
with flowers, hips and autumn colour,
or the fabulous purple-tinged foliage
of Rosa glauca. Species roses will only
flower once, so you don’t dead-head
them, but the hips are as good as
the flowers and great for wildlife.
Evergreens forever
Our native trees and shrubs are
mainly deciduous, dropping their
leaves in autumn and going into a
period of dormancy over the winter.
Surprisingly there are only five native
evergreens in the UK – Scot’s pine,
Juniper, Yew, Holly and Ivy. All the
rest have been introduced – box
105
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