Just because it’s winter, it doesn’t mean gardens can’t be colourful
The weather may be dreich but, from robin redbreasts to beautiful bulbs, there’s plenty to brighten your mood, says our expert Agnes Stevenson
It may be the middle of winter, but there’s still life around if you look for it and not just in the bulbs that are even now pushing through the soil. Rhododendrons, camellias and azaleas all set buds in the autumn and these somehow manage to come through the cold months unscathed. Just watching them grow from day to day fills me with hope for the good things to come.
The Christmas box I’ve had in a pot for years is doing much better now that it has finally been planted in the ground and, despite being cut back quite severely, it is smothered in more flowers than ever.and even if most of the borders are filled with little more than bare stems, the thick mulch of leaf mould beneath them is alive with voles and robins who scurry around and pick their way through this rich blanket, nibbling on roots and searching for worms.
Instead of stowing it away as we normally do, our patio table has remained out all winter and I’ve covered the surface in pots containing Christmas roses, primulas and small bulbs.and it’s the Iris unguicularis that I’m impatient to see flowering. Within a couple of weeks this should be displaying deep purple flowers whose fragile looks belie their toughness. They have the ability to thrive no matter how cold it gets and their rich colour is very welcome in January.
To grow these small irises well you need very free-draining soil, so I grow mine in terracotta pots using a mix of grit and compost and once the foliage starts to die down I drop the pots into a space in the border to allow the bulbs to rest.
Iris reticulata is native to Russia and the Caucuses and it is extremely hardy so if you have decent soil that doesn’t get waterlogged then plant it direct into the ground and it will thrive in both sheltered
and exposed positions. My bulbs have been in their pots for several years now and so I’ll divide them in spring, but otherwise they do best when left alone.
Primulas are an equally undemanding way to cheer up the garden. Mine have been flowering off and on for several months and all I ever do is to remove any leaves that have become tatty.and unlike the irises, which are catnip to pests, slugs and snails don’t touch them.
Bigger than slugs, but equally voracious, are the deer that have been wandering through the garden during the coldest spells. They have no appetite for holly or mahonia but if I go looking for it, I’m sure I’ll find signs of their foraging activities on other shrubs. Fortunately they don’t like hellebores, which grow here in abundance and are now covered in flowers in shades of white, green and plum and the snowdrops too will be off the menu when these open, so some flowers at least will remain untouched.