Winter flowers
Perfect greensand loam gives plants a head start in this picturesque garden. Owner Jane Edmonds believes the secret’s in the soil
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Free-draining, moisture-retentive soil is the Holy Grail for gardeners but few of us would let good soil dictate our next house purchase. Yet when self-confessed plantaholic Jane Edmonds discovered the soil at Hillside was fertile greensand loam she pretty much signed the contract there and then.
“We moved here 25 years ago from Surrey so I could open my plant nursery to the public,” she explains. “When we first saw the garden it was like something out of Sleeping Beauty; it was very overgrown but I knew the soil was perfect. Greensand loam never gets saturated but never dries out either, and after years of battling to grow plants on very dry sandy soil, I persuaded my husband it was the ideal place for us.”
Even so, creating the garden wasn’t without its challenges. “We had to scythe through brambles and remove tonnes of plant material, including a massive patch of ground elder that took four years to completely remove. Thank goodness it’s never come back! Bracken was a problem, too, around the perimeter, so I applied lime to the soil there, which stopped it encroaching into the garden.”
Jane and husband Peter Howard kept a few of the plants, including some magnificent old rhododendrons and plum trees. “Everything else we’ve added,” she says. “It took a while for the garden to get going because I was focused on setting up my plant nursery at the far end of the garden. I ended up working backwards from there; the first area I created was a woodland area among the plum trees. Then I retrained as a garden designer
with the late John Brookes and it totally changed my vision for the garden. I started to lay out the rest of the garden in a more designed manner, but with a plantsman’s approach to the planting.”
The garden now comprises three separate areas. “By the house is a terrace that’s laid out geometrically, a raised pool and more formal planting including evergreens and fragrant plants. From here you enter a central lawned area with geometric borders packed with perennials and grasses, which peaks in summer and autumn. A hornbeam hedge separates this from the final section – the woodland garden, where I’ve concentrated my winter plants for a stunning effect.”
The winter garden is home to Jane’s treasured collection of early-f lowering plants and attractive foliage. “I’ve got a lot of evergreen ferns – polystichums – which have a lovely lacy look; there are two witch hazels; drifts of hellebores alongside the marbled foliage of Arum italicum ‘Marmoratum’ and black ophiopogon. There’s also Cornus sericea ‘Flaviramea’, which is my favourite dogwood. It’s much better behaved than Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’, which I find sends up suckers everywhere; I think the greeny-yellow stems of ‘Flaviramea’ work really well with snowdrops. Having said that, ‘Midwinter
Greeny-yellow Cornus sericea ‘Flaviramea’ works really well with snowdrops
Fire’ is best at catching low winter light and I love its orange stems next to the blue-green needles of Pinus wallichiana.”
Jane’s plant knowledge, gleaned from years running her own nursery and working as a garden designer, is evident in the unusual plants that can be found here, such as Corydalis temulifolia ‘Chocolate Stars’. “I love that corydalis for its brown, fern-like foliage in late winter and early spring,” she says. “It makes a great companion for snowdrops.”
Early-f lowering woodland plants are Jane’s first love. “I do struggle with the lower light levels in winter and need to use a light lamp indoors,” she says. “I got into snowdrops, in particular, because they bring so much joy in winter.”
Jane has slowly built up her snowdrop collection, which now comprises about 200 different cultivars including ‘Bill Bishop’, ‘Veronica Cross’ and G. plicatus ‘Diggory’. “Not all snowdrops are expensive,” she says. “There are some very good ones at reasonable prices and many quickly bulk up. ‘S. Arnott’ is a classic I first bought 25 years ago and now I’ve got thousands! It’s later into f lower than some, so I’d recommend ‘Atkinsii’ for a good early flowerer. They’re both ideal for creating a carpet of white.”
Now splitting her time between her own cut f lower f loristry and garden design, Jane enjoys creating pictuesque plant cameos wherever she can, teaming winter-flowering plants for maximum impact. “I’ve planted fragrant daphne in a sunny spot, then underplanted it with snowdrops and hellebores to create a picture. If you just plant something on its own, it isn’t as exciting. And I plant lots of snowdrops in terracotta pots so I can create table displays and take photographs of them for my Instagram account. It’s lovely to bring some indoors for those days when the weather’s horrible. ‘S. Arnott’ is a good one for this because it has honey-scented f lowers.
“For me, my winter garden is more important than anything else. It’s such a hopeful thing to see something in f lower at this time of year, and waiting for a daphne, witch hazel or snowdrop to bloom keeps me going.” ✿
I first bought snowdrop ‘S. Arnott’ 25 years ago and now I’ve got thousands!