Nick Bailey brings us the best from down under for colour!
Fire up your plot this winter with some Australasian razzle dazzle
Getting fiery colour into the winter garden can be a bit of a challenge. Few plants native to the northern hemisphere are in bloom at this time of year and those that are tend to be small and lacking in lustrous hues.
If we look to the other side of the world, where it’s now summer, there are a host of colourful plants in full bloom, and the best news is that some of them can be grown here!
First on my list of pretty-much-hardy Australasian plants is Grevillea rosmarinifolia. It has a similar foliage quality to our native gorse, but darker, looser and minus the vicious spines. But the reason for growing it is the simply gorgeous flowers, not the foliage. They’re exotic-looking clusters of bright red blooms with a series of slowly unfurling, protruding stamens. This 1m (40in) tall shrub can flower through winter and spring in full sun without a break, and is even amenable to being trimmed into a short hedge. Grow it on free-draining soil and don’t be too generous when it comes to feeding.
For more red blooms, but with a slightly more subtle hue, why not give correa ‘Dusky Bells’ a shot? It also hails from Australia but is a more compact, evergreen shrub with fuchsia-like, pendulous bell flowers through winter. The blooms are small but prolific enough to make an impact on this metre-high wonder.
For a really red-hot combination pair these rich red shrubs with some yellow-flowered woody plants in the form of Acacia dealbata and Sophora microphylla ‘Sun King’. They come from Australia and New Zealand respectively and positively sing with sunshine-yellow when the rest of the garden is dark and dreary.
As a 2m (6½ft) shrub, sophora is best-suited to a small garden, whereas the acacia needs a bit more space to accommodate its stately, columnar form. It can reach 10m (33ft) or more, has a fine filigree of blue-grey foliage and drips with yellow pompom flowers in winter. The sophora, in contrast, has dark and delicate pinnate foliage and clusters of bell-shaped flowers in a cleaner yellow than some other sophoras.
Pick one or all of these dynamic doers from down under and your winter will be warmer – visually at least!