Hardy Plants for Winter Colour
There is a common misconception that “nothing flowers in the winter time” when that could not be further from the truth. When thinking about making your garden more interesting in the darker, colder months you need to consider not only flowers but all other aspects of the plant that can provide winter interest.
Cornus
Cornus, the dogwoods, are a group of deciduous shrubs that have many varieties with brightly coloured stems that show up superbly once the leaves have fallen.
The colours range from greens and yellows to oranges, reds and purple. The best colour will be found on young stems so it’s a good idea to prune these stems right down to the ground every March.
They will grow in any aspect of the garden including in very wet soil but will colour up best in a reasonably sunny location.
Skimmias
Skimmias are hardy, evergreen, compact shrubs good for all areas in the garden including heavy shade.
They give winter interest through the bright red berries that the variety skimmia reevesiana sets and holds throughout winter, and through the red flower buds of Skimmia rubella.
These are formed in the autumn but remain as clusters of red buds until they open in the spring.
“Christmas Box”, Sarcococca
A great plant to add to the garden is Gaultheria procumbens, a small, low-growing evergreen shrub. This becomes quite a conversation stopper if you give one of the berries a squeeze as it gives off a very strong aroma similar to germolene.
There are several shrubs that will provide a strong fragrance in the garden in winter. The mahonias are very hardy evergreen shrubs with long racemes of yellow flowers in mid-winter with a great fragrance.
Consider also the “Christmas Box”, Sarcococca. This is a small, glossy evergreen shrub that produces small, almost insignificant flowers that have a very strong fragrance from Christmas until April.
Lonicera Fragrantissima
The shrubby Honeysuckles such as Lonicera Fragrantissima are large free-standing shrubs that produce masses of small, white, very heavily scented flowers throughout winter.
Plants that are evergreen obviously give good colour and provide good substance to the garden all year round.
Leucothoe is a particularly good example of this. Some of these evergreens can also give good colourful flowers such as the Camellia sasanqua varieties that flower throughout winter and Camellia williamsii varieties that usually start flowering in January. These will grow best in acidic soil so do add ericaceous compost when planting.
Jasmine nudiflorum
You can also get winter flowers in your climbing plants by choosing something like the evergreen, winter flowering Clematis cirrhosa or the bright yellow flowered Jasmine nudiflorum.
Finally, don’t forget that you can always add bulbs to any part of the garden to add interest at all times of the year but the best for the depths of winter would be snowdrops and the yellow winter Aconites.