WINTER FLOWERS FOR YOU, TOO

WINTER FLOWERS! Yes, you too can have lots of Joy in your Winter Garden

Part One

I love the winter flowering shrubs and perennials. They are so brave, daring the elements with their beauty and sharing their perfume with all who pass by, shouting, "Here we are, not the common, pedestrian rush of our spring cousins, because now you have time to really look at us and be grateful for our courage". Perhaps it is my refusing to admit the inevitable finality of growth, decay and death in a garden. It is an ending that we gardeners do not have to submit to.

As long as you don't have feet of snow covering your garden for many months, you may have a flower blooming in your garden in mid-winter. Let us see what is blooming in our two gardens. We have just passed the shortest day, so it is the middle of winter. Our evening temperatures are averaging 2 C to 6 C - 35.600 F to 42.80 F and the day time temperatures are 12 C to 15 C - 50.00 F to 59.00 F.

First, we will stroll down the old brick paths in the Town Garden. Note in the photo we DO have snow sometimes. This is an old garden and the Christmas roses have had time to form large clumps. There they are, in colours of white striped green or freckled with dark red spots, plum to dark pink with or without a spotted throat, pale pink to the darkest red, all these 'orientalis' nodding to their neighbours who have braved the cold for many weeks now, the unfortunately named, H.foetidus. This helleborus has attractive dark green 'finger' leaves and the full sprays of lime green buds remain in flower for many weeks. Not so prolific are the beautiful pale apple-green Corsicus syn H.arguifolius, H. lividus that have very striking leaves that remain attractive throughout the year. The pure white or tinted pale pink, H. niger is a particular favourite of mine.

We now stand by the little pond that my daughter, Francesca, pick-axed for me when she was ten years old. There are three ancient beer barrels with the witch hazels planted in them. They are teasing me again, as they do every year. We play the annual game, I visit every day to see if those promising buds have burst open and they never have until, one day, when I have not been able to get into the garden for several days, there they are, spidery flowers laughing at me, shouting, "You thought we would never come." And, Ah! The perfume! I am very fond of the original specie, Hamamelis mollis, it is so vigorous. Witch hazel has been used in the tonic water we use to enhance our complexions for many years. Though these hazels have been restricted in the barrels for many years, they now stand about twelve feet in the air, plenty of branches to cut for the vases to give a delightful perfume throughout the house.