Alpines for winter
What these plants lack in colour at this time of year, they more than make up for with their striking foliage
favourite for looks, but unlike many of the other perennials in the genus, it didn’t stick around. This gorgeous plant has completely disappeared from the border. I now note that it’s described by many as ‘short-lived’. But don’t let this fleeting appearance put you off though as this plant is a stunner.
Like all gardeners, I have a wish list of plants and on it are two more hardy rudbeckias. The first is R. subtomentosa ‘Henry Eilers’, with its fine petals, and the second is the more relaxed R. triloba. This has the classic dark centre to the flower but offers a mass of smaller flowers – both perennials would look stunning with ornamental grasses and offer yet more valuable and reliable colour to the early-autumn garden.
Like the majority of plants, alpines are at their most colourful during spring and summer, with winter being a period of rest. That’s not to say alpines aren’t interesting over winter. Definitely not. A lack of colour at this time of year is more than compensated for by differing shapes and foliage. Frosty weather adds an extra icing to the cake, with foliage being edged in ice crystals, though you might need to get out early before any warmth melts it away!
Of course, some types look better than others but here are a few to look out for:
Saxifraga ‘Hare Knoll Beauty’: Very neat, stiff-leaved, cushion-forming rosettes of greygreen, pink flowers in summer but really good for attracting winter frost and ice. Good for containers.
Pritzelago alpina: One of those accommodating plants happy to grow wherever it finds itself. In winter it makes a neat mat or dome shape made up of small, somewhat glossy, evergreen leaves that look great covered in frost. The sparkling white flowers appear from spring onwards. Grows happily in sun or shade.
Draba sphaeroides: Slowly forms itself into a really compact hemisphere of bristly-leaved, dark green rosettes. This one looks wonderful in frosty weather. A small plant best in containers or a pot.
Saxifraga grisebachii: A little cracker at any time of the year. A two-year-old plant is only a few centimetres across but has the most perfect arrangement of silver-edged, stiff little leaves that make up an evergreen rosette. It hates the wet so is best under cover - though not indoors.
● Slack Top Alpine Nursery, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. Tel: 01422 845348; www.slacktopnurseries.co.uk.