THE WINTER PLANTS.
As my garden is a little on the small side as gardens go, I have to be very careful as to what I plant, and where I plant it. I used to boast that the garden looked just as good in the winter as it did in the summer, and that is more or less still the case.
Conifers, " these are what I call my winter plants" are the backbone of the garden, because they form the main outline of the planting scheme. Everything else is planted to compliment this framework of plants. Because the garden is full of flowering plants from early spring until the first frost, the conifers don't draw much attention. It is only when everything else has gone to bed for the winter that they come into their own. The foliage sparkles in the morning dew and small droplets of water hang on the cobwebs that stretch from branch to branch like a diamond necklace, and sparkles with every colour of the rainbow when the sun shines through it. This gives a whole new dimension to the garden that one would never see in the summertime.
The various colours of green combined with the different textures are more effective at this time. The yellow foliage varieties seem to intensify in colour after a little frost and sometimes turn a copper colour at the tips.
Variegated plants such a Taxus standishii almost illuminate in the dull winter sunshine, while they go unnoticed in the bright summer sun.
Picea nidiformis is one of the best small forms, which spreads out in horizontal layers and never getting more than two feet high.
Abies Hudsonia is a very compact plant with densely arranged short balsam-scented leaves. I have had this lime tolerant conifer in my garden for over twenty years and it is still only eighteen inches high and twenty-six inches wide.
Chamaecyparis lawsoniana minima aurea is a conical bush of dense habit with sprays of soft golden yellow foliage. This is one of the best and often recommended for the rock garden. I have two of them planted in my scree beds, come rock garden, and they are doing nicely, but after twenty years one of them is getting to the limit that would normally be permitted for the rockgarden. It now stands four feet high and over two feet wide at the base. While I wouldn't have the heart to remove it altogether it may soon need to be relocated.
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