Bring on the colour and form
Backbone planting
Fabulous foliage, colourful stems and glowing berries can be employed to bring interest to a small-scale winter display. Use evergreen shrubs such as box, skimmia and hebe, and herbs such as rosemary and bay, as the backbone – these can be planted in the garden in spring or when they outgrow their container – and for extra colour add in a variegated shrub such as euonymus ‘Silver Queen’. The lustrous leaves of sarcococca look attractive all year, but it’s the strongly perfumed winter flowers that will stop you in your tracks, making it a good choice for planting by a doorway. For an eye-catching shot of colour use the low-growing Gaultheria procumbens, which has festive red berries, but make sure to use ericaceous compost for this acid-loving plant.
Colourful dogwoods are the cornerstone of a winter garden, their stems illuminated in the low winter light, and while these deciduous shrubs will eventually grow too big for long-term container growing, a pot can be a temporary winter home. Choose from blood-red Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’, yellow-stemmed C. sericea ‘Flaviramea’ or flame-coloured ‘Midwinter Fire’, and use them as the base for a colour scheme, teaming with winter bedding such as polyanthus and violas.
For flowers look to winter heathers, which will bloom right through to spring and provide a vital source of food for solitary bees tempted to fly on mild days, and the early flowering Helleborus niger. And to keep the interest going into spring, pop some bulbs into the compost too: it’s hard to beat crocus, Iris reticulata and narcissus ‘Rijnveld’s Early Sensation’, which can be in bloom at the start of the new year.
And as the shorter days and cold and wet weather make venturing into the garden less appealing, make sure you position your collection of winter plants in a spot where they can be seen from inside or by a door you use frequently so they raise the spirits every time you see them.