If your garden seems uninteresting during the winter months, you might consider growing the Friends of Winter.
Writing this article has inspired me to buy a Prunus mume so that I will have the three friends of winter in my garden. I now have a variety of Prunus mume which is named 'W. B. Clarke'. It is supposed to have pale pink flowers on weeping branches. This tree is a welcome addition to my garden, but my fruiting Japanese plums bloom in January and my purple-leaved plum blooms in February, so I feel that I have already had the three friends for over a decade.
I only have three species of pine in my garden. The native Shore Pine (Pinus contorta) is more attractive when grown on sandy soil than it is in my heavy clay soil. On clay soil it is fast growing and it doesn't have much character, but in sandy soil it grows more slowly and when shaped by the wind it can be very picturesque (thus the name 'contorta'). My Macedonian Pine (Pinus peuce) is mainly of interest because it is somewhat rare in gardens and I expect that I will eventually cut it down, but I love my Japanese Red Pine (Pinus densiflora). Unlike most pines, Japanese Red Pines prefer heavy soil, and their blue green foliage contrasts beautifully with the dark green native conifers in the forest surrounding my garden. Japanese Red Pines get their English name from their very attractive red bark and they get their Latin name from their dense clusters of cones. I have no great desire to collect pines, but I love my Japanese Red Pine so much that I have planted a second one as a focal point at the end of my 150 foot long driveway. These pines form broadly irregular heads at maturity, so they should become increasingly beautiful with age.
I don't place much value on most pines as garden plants because my garden is surrounded by a forest of conifers, but I fall in love with my bamboo every winter. I love the way that their translucent leaves glow against dark green conifers; especially under a gray winter sky.
I have four species of timber bamboo: Phyllostachys bambusoides, Phyllostachys heterocycla pubescens, Phyllostachys nigra 'Henon', and Phyllostachys vivax. I have given them plenty of space so that they can form a large grove. In a few decades this grove should be one of my garden's most important features. I look forward to walking among the giant culms.
