What to do right now to get your garden tip top for the year ahead

A new season…

Yes, it’s true. It is more than a month since the shortest day of the year in December. Already there has been a visible increase in the intensity of sunlight and in the length of days. while people often remark on the stretch in the evenings and brighter mornings, they rarely notice the strengthening intensity of the sunlight day after day, week after week.

But plants do notice. Sunlight changes their hormones, causing them to act differently. Longer days and more intense sunshine triggers increases in growth and development. Often we do not notice change until the first flowers of the season.

But it is not just plants that are spurred into action by the sun’s rays: gardeners of every kind are drawn forth for another season… the growing season!

1 Daphne mezereum, mezereon or daphne, is a medium-sized shrub with sweetly scented purple flowers on upright bare stems. It flowers reliably in February each year, red berries following the flowers. When seeds are shed nearby, seedlings often appear.

2 Chaenomeles ‘Nicoline’ is one of the most attractive Japanese quince varieties, forming a large shrub with bunched clusters of bright red flowers, some double. Japanese quince can be allowed to grow, or it can be pruned after flowering to restrict its size.

3 Hamamelis mollis ‘Pallida’ is a very popular witch hazel, forming a small tree with scented bright-yellow spidery flowers. It also produces a fine show of butter-yellow foliage in autumn, lasting several weeks.

4 Erica ‘December Red’ or winter heather is a fastgrowing, low shrub, with deep-pink flowers on spreading stems. The deep colour of the flowers has a warming effect on the garden at the coldest time of the year.

5 Juniperus suecica ‘Sentinel’, Swedish juniper, has fine green-grey foliage and a tightly narrow upright shape that can be used for excellent contrast with lowgrowing, spreading, shrubs or perennial flowers. It likes well-drained soil and sunlight.