The Garden in January 2025
Well, here we are again at the beginning of yet another gardening year and even though there is not a great deal to be done in the garden so early in the calendar we gardeners can look forward to the year ahead with a good deal of hope and anticipation as well as some excitement about plans for future projects. However, even I have to admit that as I look outside as I start to write this blog all I can see and hear is the tail end of Storm Darragh which literally tore through our area overnight. How any plants can survive such a blast is nothing short of miraculous but survive is what the vast majority did with, fortunately for us, just the loss of a few leaves and twigs. In the wider area though some trees, especially ash with die-back disease, were less fortunate and caused a good deal of disruption in particular to travel and the power supply, ours being off for nearly four days!
Looking back at past January blogs I see that in 2021 I was searching for any signs of life in the garden and, as always, was able to find quite a few. These included early flowering bulbs, Hellebores, Witch Hazel, Christmas Box, Mahonia, Vinca and Viburnum. In 2022 the January blog came from the gardens at Aberglasney in their winter dormancy but still with lots of interesting plants and features to discover. In 2023 I highlighted some of my favourite winter plants including Galanthus (Snowdrops), Eranthis (Winter Aconite), winter stem Dogwoods (Cornus alba) plus some winter flowering shrubs and trees such as Christmas Box (Sarcococca), Cornus mas, Chimonanthus (Winter Sweet), the winter flowering Cherry (Prunus x subhirtella) and winter flowering Honeysuckle (Lonicera). In 2024 I was following up on an article on Ivies from the December 2023 blog as well as looking at some ways to make our gardens more resilient to weather extremes- rather apt as it turns out in the light of recent events!
In late November last year I came across a very good article by Val Bourne in the Daily Telegraph (Saturday 23rd Nov.) in which she recommended some excellent winter plants. Val is a long-time gardener, writer and lecturer and regularly writes for the Telegraph. She gardens in the Cotswolds at Spring Cottage, high above Bourton on the Water in Gloucestershire and is well known in the horticultural world for her organic gardening style. At one time in the not too distant past many gardens in the autumn/early winter were simply ‘put to bed’. In more recent times, however, we have begun to realise that there are many delights to be found in the winter garden from evergreens, fragrant flowering plants and fine details in bark, stems and seed heads. Val’s ten recommendations include some trees, shrubs, climbing and ground cover plants which can all make a real statement in the winter garden. She starts and finishes her list with two hollies, Ilex aquifolium ‘Alaska’ and Ilex x altaclerensis ‘Golden King’. ‘Alaska’ is a prickly (its species name ‘aquifolium’ refers to eagles’ talons), plain green ‘English’ holly with glossy, neat foliage which lends itself to being clipped to shape if required. Left to its own devices it will reach 15 feet (5m) or so in 20 years and will produce a good display of red berries as it is a female variety. ‘Golden King’, despite its name, is also female but is much kinder to the fingers and along with fewer, less spiky thorns has flushes of gold on its leaves. It is a hybrid plant, a cross between Ilex perado and Ilex aquifolium and was first noticed at Highclere Castle in Hampshire (the setting, of course, for ‘Downton Abbey’). Val’s other tree/shrub choices include a willow, a Daphne, a Witch Hazel and a Cornus. The willow is Salix gracilistyla ‘Mount Aso’ which is an irresistible, pink pussy willow. ‘Mount Aso, as I’m sure you all know is Japan’s largest, active volcano! All Daphnes are real. scented beauties through the winter months but Val suggests that the best is Daphne bholua. Unfortunately, it is slow growing and difficult to propagate so it is always on the expensive side! A very good alternative is Daphne ‘Jacqueline Postill’ which is very floriferous and highly scented. Witch Hazel is another great winter favourite with its weather resistant, spidery, yellow, orange or red flowers in January/February. The most commonly grown ones are varieties of Hamamelis x intermedia. They vary quite a lot in terms of fragrance, the yellow ones generally being more fragrant than the reds. Val, very sensibly, recommends buying them in flower so that the fragrance can be sampled before purchase. Her two stand out yellows are ‘Pallida’ and ‘Barmstedt Gold’.
Ilex x altaclerensis ‘Golden King’ // Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’
While we are on the subject of Witch Hazels another article in the January edition of the RHS magazine ‘The Garden’ caught my eye. In it Chris Lane, who began collecting different varieties over forty years ago, highlighted some of his favourites as well as suggesting how best to use them in our gardens. All bar one of his choices are hybrids of Hamamelis x intermedia. The ‘reds’ include ‘Foxy Lady’ (the ‘most’red) and ‘Diane’, the coppery-orange ones are ‘Jelena’, ‘Burning Desire’ and ‘Vesna’ and the yellows are ‘Pallida’ and the one which we grow ‘Arnold Promise’. In terms of their use in the garden he suggests that the yellow and orange varieties work best when grown in front of evergreens where they will really stand out against the background even on gloomy days. The reds can get a little lost against such backgrounds so are better in an open position where the low winter sun can light them up. All colours are also best grown at the front of beds and borders so that their scent can be enjoyed to the full. They will also produce more flower in the open but will grow perfectly well in light shade. In terms of soil, good drainage is important as is a generous amount of organic matter at planting time and annually as a mulch and finally a neutral to slightly acidic soil will suit them best. A connected article in the same magazine by James Armitage interestingly explained why Hamamelis are found in the wild in Asia and North America but not in Europe as are other genera such as Deutzia, Liriodendron, Magnolia and Mahonia. This is all to do with the most recent periods of glaciation and the orientation of the great mountain ranges of these continents. As the ice ages progressed plants were forced to ‘migrate’ southwards and were able to do so in North America by moving west and east of the north-south aligned Rocky Mountains and in Asia by slipping east of the Himalayas. In Europe, however, the plants came up against the extensive west to east barrier presented by the Pyrenees, Alps and Carpathians and were unable to shift far enough south to survive the cold. Val’s final shrub choice is Cornus officinalis which has tiny roundlets of bright yellow flowers between late winter and March. A similar shrub which brightens up our front garden is Cornus mas, the Cornellian Cherry. Val’s winter ground cover plants are Cyclamen, Heuchera and Helleborus. Firstly, she recommends Cyclamen hederifolium which, although it flowers in the autumn, has wonderful winter foliage with its ivy-shaped, marbled leaves in green and silver and is great for shady areas where it can grow undisturbed. Val partners it with Snowdrops and the black ‘grass’ (really a type of Lily) Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’. There is, of course, another hardy cyclamen, Cyclamen coum, with its heart-shaped, patterned leaves and pink or white flowers which appear after Christmas. Val keeps this away from the more vigorous C. hederifolium as they don’t seem to sit happily together. Heucheras are another plant with wonderfully veined and patterned leaves in a variety of colours. Her recommendation is Heuchera ‘Glitter’ with its pewter leaves veined in black with red stems.
One of our red-purple Heucheras
Her choice of a Hellebore is perhaps a little surprising as it is nowhere near as glamorous as its cousins the colourful, hybrid hellebores. However, Helleborus foetidus, the Stinking Hellebore (don’t worry, it is the root which smells) flowers much earlier than the hybrids, can tolerate deep shade and is resistant to rabbits and deer! The divided, dark green foliage supports a stem containing a head of nodding, green bells each one finely margined in winter red. If you have been counting you will know that there is still one plant to come, a climber Clematis cirrhosa var. balearica which as its name suggests originally came from the mediterranean island of Majorca and its near neighbours. It has dense, fern-like foliage and in the winter silky, green-white bells tastefully dappled in maroon and much loved by early bumblebees. Coming from warmer climes it does require a warm, sheltered, south facing position. It can be tidied up after flowering but otherwise requires no regular pruning. C. cirrhosa ‘Freckles’ is similar but has larger, but fewer, white flowers heavily speckled in red as early as November.
Cornus mas // Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’
Cyclamen coum // Cyclamen hederifolium
Another article in ‘The Garden’ in January 2025 was right up my street concerning the arrival of the winter bird visitors to our gardens. Some have been here all along in our countryside but as winter sets in they relocate to areas with better food resources which, of course, include our gardens. These include flocks of tits (blue, great, coal and long-tailed) and finches (chaffinch, greenfinch, bullfinch and possibly even siskins) as well as blackbirds searching for fallen apples and turning over leaves in the flower beds in search of worms and insects. However, our resident populations are also joined by migrants from northern and eastern Europe fleeing the cold in favour of our milder conditions. They are joined by redwings and fieldfares which are close relatives to our song and mistle thrushes as well as tens of thousands of starlings and, if you are very lucky, the colourful waxwings from as far afield as Russia. To help all these feathered friends and to attract them into our gardens planting fruiting trees and shrubs is an obvious good choice but so too is having a patch of lawn, some available fresh water and lots of organic matter on our beds and borders as well, of course, providing food in feeders and on tables.
One of our Bullfinches enjoying the last of the Pheasant berries- Leycesteria formosa
Well, that is all for this month but I will be back in February with a few more thoughts and ideas and it won’t be long before the Saturday morning talks at the Old Railway Line recommence in March. Until then it just remains for me to wish you all a very happy and healthy 2025 and to hope that you enjoy your winter gardening.
Keith.