Brighten winter borders with pretty aconites
It’s not too late to enjoy a show of cheery aconites this winter . . .
January is hardly the jolliest gardening month. But despite foul weather and teatime twilight, plants are waking up, and the first new-season flowers are budding. you’ve probably seen snowdrops already. But, then, they can even bloom in autumn. Winter aconites, on the other hand, stay underground until days begin to lengthen.
Their first flowers show as bright yellow dots among the gloomy winter hues, and as days pass, they appear in greater numbers. By February, aconites create carpets of gold and green. These light up gloriously in weak winter sunshine.
aconites are amazingly versatile. In a tiny garden, they’ll be happy for years in pots or troughs.
I naturalise mine along with snowdrops at the edge of our little woodland. They thrive in the leafy, humus-rich soil, and make a charming prelude to primroses and wood anemones.
LITTLE BEAUTIES
ACONITES also seed freely in my mixed borders — and are welcome. They’re invasive plants, but easily controlled.
If yours spread too eagerly, hoe them out. or ignore them. The top-growth soon dies and they’ll be invisible from late May.
If you don’t grow winter aconites, perhaps you should. Few other plants give such a lovely show for so little effort. Traditionally, winter aconites were sold and planted in autumn as dry tubers. But like snowdrops, you can also buy them bare-rooted and ‘in the green’.
nurseries and garden centres sometimes offer potted aconites, too — often sold when in flower.
But the nicest way to acquire aconites is from friends or neighbours. anyone who grows them will probably have a surplus, and gardeners are generous folk. Furthermore, if the plants are lifted and transplanted with care now, you can enjoy the current show.
common winter aconites are ridiculously easy to grow. Both low-growing and clump-forming, the plants will spread to provide a temporary yellow and green cover. each short stem carries an elegant ruff of narrow leaflets with a single yellow flower.
When transplanting, you’ll notice that the knobbly tubers are easy to break up.
Do that gently, making sure you don’t damage the frail stems or leaves.
re-plant the divisions immediately. set them deeply enough to bury the tubers but with a few inches of stem clearing the ground.
The most widely grown aconite is Eranthis hyemalis. Though non- native, it’s by far the quickest to naturalise. you might also come across the pretty, later-blooming Turkish species, E. cilicica whose bronze ruffs have narrower leaflets.
FANCY VARIETIES
LIKE hellebores and columbines, winter aconites belong to the buttercup family. Their name refers to the leaves which resemble those of monkshood or aconitum.
There are nine species, all native to europe or asia. china, korea and Japan have some gorgeous ones with flowers in pale mauve-pink or white. But those are difficult to grow and need cool forest conditions.
In contrast, the two most common species E. hyemalis and E. cilicica are totally hardy and easy to grow. There are also hybrids between the two, such as E. x tubergenii. Those have excellent vigour.
In recent years, new cultivars have been turning up. among these, I grow a cream-yellow variety, schwefelglanz, whose sulphur-yellow flowers develop a parchment hue.
To find out more about aconite varieties, consider joining the alpine Garden society ( alpinegardensociety.net). and for supplies, try Monksilver nursery,