Colour secrets at Bressingham
Bressingham Winter Garden is full of colourful, high impact planting ideas. Adrian Bloom shares its secrets
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The Bressingham Gardens in Norfolk are famous for the year-round colour and interest provided by magnificent trees and shrubs, and sweeping beds packed with swathes of perennials and ethereal grasses. Founded in the 1950s by renowned plantsman Alan Bloom, they’re now under the care of his son Adrian and curator Jaime Blake.
Even during the coldest months, plants in the winter garden sparkle in the low light and glisten on frosty mornings, while the first bulbs unfurl their exquisite blooms providing hope that spring isn’t too far away. Adrian Bloom shares its story.
How did the garden come about? Around 2004 I was developing some areas near the garden entrance. I’d always been interested in plants that looked atractive all year round and I have a particular passion for conifers, which look really good in winter, but I’d also experimented with plants such as colourful-stemmed cornus. I could see there was an opportunity to create something really quite striking.
What are the key plants?
The 30-40ft drifts of Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ really create impact, combined with an array of conifers, some of which change colour in the colder weather, providing shape, form and texture.
Silver birch such as Betula apoensis ‘Mount Apoi’, and Acer griseum are included for their fabulous bark, with fragrant winter-flowering shrubs, bulbs and heather for groundcover.
I avoided planting anything that would grow too tall in the centre of the garden, because it was important not to block out the light. Colourful winter plants such as bergenias and cornus look their best in the low light, and the heathers need as much sun as possible to flower well.
There’s also a weeping atlas cedar, which has been trained to form a decorative archway to the winter garden, and black-leaved ophiopogon contrasts well with snowdrops such as ‘S. Arnott’. ➤
Which winter plants suit a smaller space? Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ would work well as a central plant; it has good autumn colour and holds onto it leaves longer than other dogwoods. You can keep it a reasonable size by cutting it back every year. It’ll grow to 1.2m (4ft) in a season and after a few years it’ll send out suckers, but these are easy to remove if a problem. With pulmonaria, bergenia ‘Bressingham Ruby’ and a few cyclamen and snowdrops planted at the base, you can create a display that has a long season of colour.
The climate here is one of the driest in the country so seedheads and grasses tend to look good for longer. Some get too tall and blow over, so I tend to select shorter grasses such as Panicum virgatum ‘Northwind’, which holds up well, as does Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’. Experiment and see which plants thrive for you.
Can you suggest some conifers that don’t get too big? Pinus mugo ‘Winter Gold’ has needles that turn golden yellow in winter and it’s more compact than most, slow-growing and can be pruned. Pinus heldreichii ‘Smidtii’ has lovely, very dark green needles and if you put something lighter in front of it, such as a variegated grass or the silvery foliage of pulmonaria ‘Diana Clare’, you’ll get quite a contrast.
What would make a good winter container display? For several years I’ve had Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’ in a container outside my back door with ophiopogon and snowdrops planted around the base of the stems. It’s really lovely to see during winter. Then you can move it out of the way in spring, cut back the stems, feed the compost and don’t forget to water it.
What sort of maintenance is required at Bressingham? We mostly leave seedheads of perennials such as hylotelephium ‘Matrona’ and grasses in place in this area until they look a bit of a mess, but in the rest of the garden Jaime cuts these plants back in autumn. When you have a collection of more than 4,500 different perennials it’s important they don’t self-seed!
The heathers have formed extensive groundcover, which helps keep weeding down and they need very little care – one or two Erica darleyensis types just need a light prune after flowering. The biggest job, because we have so many of them, is cutting back the cornus at the end of March. ✿
Black-leaved ophiopogon contrasts well with snowdrop ‘S. Arnott’