Winter Jasmine - Jasminum nudiflorumThe mornings are colder now with heavy dew on the grass and condensation on the windows. The wood burner is lit most evenings and the log pile already has a hole in it! Some friends have felled a lot of trees from their newly acquired property which has a very overgrown garden and my reward for helping was plenty of wood that can be split for logs, so we won’t need to buy any for the next few years. Wood certainly warms you twice – once when chopped and stacked and again when it is burnt!
As the leaves fall or are stripped off by strong winds, the winter garden starts to emerge and I begin to look for gaps to plant shade loving perennials that can flower in spring and will not mind when they are crowded out for the summer by other plants.
The perennial Forget Me Not (Brunnera) is a star in dry shade and I love the variegated forms with silvered leaves or white edges that compliment the clouds of bright blue flowers, fizzing on trailing stems for months from February onwards. The shadier the site, the bigger the leaves grow to catch more of the light. Pulmonaria (Lungwort) too, are worth their weight in late winter and spring borders. Last summer I planted a white flowered form with leaves that are boldly spotted silver and the plants have been shaded by shrubs and taller perennials through the summer months, but they have made big crowns and will be welcome early color along with the double Snowdrops that were planted ‘in the green’ at the same time.
Scented winter shrubs are some of my favourites and we have several in the garden including a shrubby Honeysuckle (Lonicera x fragrantissima) which is slowly colonising an area of the garden in dry shade. The plant layers freely which means it roots where stems touch the soil as well as suckering – producing underground stems that shoot up some distance from the main plant! After leaving it to its own devices for several years, we have done battle and I have cut it back to size only for it to grow back more vigorously! I can forgive the thuggish habit for the sweet scent of the flowers that appear for months from late winter onwards.
Although it is not scented, the flat, bright yellow flowers on the winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) always make me smile. They look so delicate, but if grown on a shady fence or wall, are unharmed by frosts and our old plant flowers from the end of November until March each year. It is a favorite in Mrs McGregor’s flower arrangements for the Christmas table.
The ivory white flowers of winter Clematis cirrhosa hang like bells on evergreen plants and are loved by bees which climb into them. The plant has scant, delicate looking growth of deep green, parsley-like leaves and is best grown through a host shrub or climbing rose on a sheltered, warm wall or fence. It is on my shopping list to climb through a Pyracantha and brighten up what is at present a dull corner through the winter months.
Another visit to Notcutts is imminent!
