Gardens & Homes Agnes Stevenson on how it’s shaping up to be a berry colourful winter
Agnes Stevenson embraces the berry boom as she fills her garden with reds, blues and yellows... but will her efforts bear fruit in time for Christmas?
It struck me a few weeks ago that this was shaping up to be a bumper year for berries. Every holly tree, cotoneaster and hawthorn is laden with a rich crop of glossy fruits and the rowan trees are smothered with bright buds.
It’s as if the garden is bejewelled, studded with small, enamelled drops that glow even on days when the sky is leaden and the fallen leaves are being plastered to the grass by sleety rain.
I’m not alone in my suspicions. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is reporting a holly boom, with trees and brushes fruiting more prolifically than they have in years.
This abundant harvest is good news for wildlife but it’s not, as some people assume, a sign that we are in for a hard winter.
According to Guy Barter, the RHS’S chief horticulturist, hot, dry conditions in July of 2018 allowed woody plants to lay down lots of flower buds, which when they flowered this spring were found by enough pollinating insects to stimulate good berry production.
It’s a pity plants can’t predict the weather because if they could then I would know when it was safe to dig perennials out of the borders without risk of frost damage and if it will be dry enough next Wednesday for me to plant the last of the tulip bulbs. I’ve looked at the forecast and it’s looking a bit iffy at the moment but if I’m going to get the job done this side of Christmas then I’m going to have to push on.
Anything that brings colour to the garden is welcome but there’s always more that can be added to the picture. I want to grow the stinking hellebore (Helleborus foetidus), which is more decorative and less smelly than its name suggests, and I’ve still not planted the mahonias which I promised myself would be in before winter.
The acid yellow flowers of forsythia, which flowers in late winter, divide opinion and for many years I would have agreed with anyone who said their tones were too strident. But here in the woods there’s enough greenery to soften even the brightest colour, so I picked one up that had been raised as a cutting by the gardeners at nearby Dumfries House and I’m looking forward to seeing it in flower.
Before that, the honeysuckle and cherry should start coming into bloom and little white flowers will cover the Christmas box.
I’m less hopeful that I’ll see anything from the Wintersweet. These highly-fragrant shrubs, with flowers like yellow lampshades, can take many years to start flowering, but I’ve got my fingers crossed.